


Avengers: Endgame

by WeirdFanGirl



Series: Avengers Adventures [1]
Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Alternate Avengers Endgame, Avengers Endgame Rewrite, Grief/Mourning, Happy Ending, LGBT Heroes, Multi, Other Additional Tags to Be Added
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-26
Updated: 2020-01-07
Packaged: 2021-01-03 18:22:46
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 37
Words: 66,164
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21183923
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/WeirdFanGirl/pseuds/WeirdFanGirl
Summary: They all have lost. Some would move on, but not them. After the epic climax of Avengers: Infinity War, ending with Thanos successfully erasing half of the life in the universe from existence, the survivors join forces to avenge their fallen and defeat their most powerful foe, once and for all, in a thrilling endgame, that will test the boundaries of sacrifice, love, and strength.Alternate Universe because these were my predictions for Endgame and this was under construction by the time the movie came out. Basically, what if the outcome in the movie wasn't the one where they actually won? They still lost friends and family, so here is the outcome in which they actually win.Essentially an Avengers Endgame rewrite. Because I said so. XD





	1. Take my hand

**Author's Note:**

> Hey! First Fanfiction! (eee) The original is posted to FanFiction.net and the updated will be posted (here) and on there as well! So this was being written the moment after I saw infinity war and I've been perfecting it for a year so some of my predictions were, or course, proven wrong, so since this didn't make it out before endgame, I'm posting it now as a alternate possibility. Because, what if the outcome we saw in Endgame wasn't how they actually won because even though they defeated Thanos, they still loss Tony and Natasha? So, this is how they actually could have defeated Thanos and truly won. I hope you enjoy! XD

"We're in the endgame now."

Carol Danvers snapped out of her thoughts when she felt the inescapable pull of a time vortex surrounding her.

"Crud." She muttered, searching for a possible weak point in it, but half of her body was already pulled through.

Time had no meaning in the quantum realm, so she had no way of knowing how long she had been trapped in it. It looked like the inside of a colorful kaleidoscope between time and space. Gravity did not have an effect on anything either, making it nearly impossible to escape from a time vortex.

Carol thrashed and kicked, trying to break free of the time vortex, but she knew she must be losing it when she thought she heard someone tell her to take their hand. In one final attempt to escape, she forced myself upwards and extended her arm out over her head.

And as she did, a black-and-red gloved hand latched on to her's.

* * *

Carol was pulled out just enough to use all her remaining strength to fly the both them out of the vortex. When they were far enough away, she let out an exhausted sigh and realized the person who had pulled her out of the vortex now had a death grip on her hand.

"Holy crap." He muttered, with a high edge of concern in his voice.

She wondered what the possibility was of it being a coincidence that this person happened to be near the time vortex she was being pulled through, or that he was in the quantum realm in the first place for that matter. Not to mention his helmet was giving her the creeps.

"Who are you?" Carol asked defensively.

"What? Who the heck are you?" He exclaimed.

"Ha. Asked you first." Carol replied contemptuously.

"And the flying, and the vortex-resistant energy blast…" He continued to rant on.

"Let's just say I'm not from around here." She replied vaguely.

He scoffed, "Yeah, no kidding. Thank you Captain Obvious."

"Marvel." Carol corrected.

"What?"

"Captain Marvel." She gestured to the star on her uniform.

He gave her a perplexed look, and then after contemplating for a few moments he replied, "Ant-Man."

Carol laughed, "So let me guess. You have the powers of an ant."

"Well, yeah. Accept I can't lay eggs. That would be weird. And disgusting." Ant-Man replied casually.

"Wow. Good for you for being creative." Carol said sarcastically, "Don't you think it's even just a little bit obvious?"

"Actually, I think it's just the right amount of obvious. What the heck is Captain Marvel supposed to mean?"

"A combination of my rank, Kree Starforce title, and my mentor.”

"Right, that was my first guess." Ant-Man said humorously, “I have no idea what a Kree Starforce is, but other than being cryptic and sarcastic, they sure seem… like nice people?"

Carol’s hands were balled into fists, unaware that they were also glowing. She was staring intensely at him, questioning what her next move should be. Something about him had been off from the beginning, and it wasn't just the weird helmet. Maybe he was a rogue Skrull playing dumb; ever since Talos had mentioned a league of rogues whose goal was to invade planets as revenge, that paranoia stuck in the back of her mind. Or he could be one of those S.H.I.E.L.D agents who wanted to arrest her, you know, cause it seemed they had nothing better to do. He could also be some sort of eternal punishment sent by the Black Order to annoy her for the rest of time. They hated her enough to do that. The last one seemed less likely, but Carol refused to rule it out just yet.

However, he could have simply been in the wrong place at the wrong time. Now involved in something he didn't quite understand or want to be a part of. She knew what that felt like. After all, he had just helped save both of their lives. She sighed, let the energy fade from her fists.

"I'm sorry." Carol said regretfully.

"Uh, yeah, it's ok." Ant-Man responded concernedly. You know, like a dad for some reason. Five bucks he was a dad.

Carol nodded, "It's personal; my business with the Kree. They're the reason I have these powers and they made me use them to hurt people."

Silence. “Look, I might not know much about aliens or Kree people or whatever, but I do know what it's like to recognize when you're doing the wrong thing. And you may think those Kree people made you someone you're not, but that Captain Marvel back there at the time vortex a couple minutes ago, I'm pretty sure was you."

There was another moment of silence before Carol spoke, "Thanks Ant-Man."

Ant-Man sighed, "You know, as cool as it is that someone actually called me Ant-Man, I feel bad letting you think that's my real name. I mean, you probably assumed that wasn't my real name because I'd have some really mean parents if it was, but it's not my real name and I don't have mean parents,"

Carol raised her eyebrow into a puzzled expression.

"What I'm trying to say is: I'm Scott Lang." He said as he held out his hand.

Deciding she could trust him, she shook his hand and added, "Carol Danvers." Then she started laughing, "You know Scott, you can be, surprisingly, sentimental when you want to, but I can't take you seriously in that helmet."

"Har har," Scott commented sarcastically, "It tends to be pretty helpful because it helps me do this thing, what was it again? Oh, right. Breath."

Carol snortled.

"Besides, you’re a hypocrite. You’re wearing a helmet looking thing right now.”

"Yeah, but the difference is mine is cool. Yours is weird.”

"Hey!”

She playfully punched him in the arm.

“You’re mean. Do you have friends? Are you mean to you mean to your friends?”

"I don’t know. Do all _your_ friends have nicknames and weird helmets?"

"First of all, what is your deal with my helmet? And second of all, kind of, I guess. Ava scares me, but her’s is more a mask. And then Hope is Wasp now."

She laughed, "Ant-Man and the Wasp. That's cute,"

"Yeah.” Then suddenly, even from inside his helmet, Carol could tell Scott's cheeks had turned bright red from embarrassment, "Wait, no. No it's not. It's very professional. I mean, sure, maybe I like her but, you know, we're partners. No, I just heard myself. We respect each other and stuff and we fight crime together, but that does not indicate a relationship. And we've only really kissed twice so… you know what Carol? Quite pestering me about my love life."

Carol held up her hands and shrugged, "I didn't say anything."

"Oh, yeah. You didn't, didn't you?"

"Nope."

Scott sighed, "I'm not a hundred percent sure what happened to her anyways. I was making a trip down here to get Ava some healing particles to help with her phasing and Hope and her parents were at the controls. Then it was like they just disappeared or something."

Carol suddenly felt a pang of dread. Her face was drained of color.

"Or…” She started nervously, testing to see how Scott would respond, "Like someone just snapped their fingers, and then they were gone." She finished slowly.

Scott made eye contact with Carol and immediately looked down at his glove and traced the small button with his finger.

"Well," He began, choosing his words carefully, "I think if enough people just disappeared like that, then the people remaining would be trapped in some endgame."

Carol closed her eyes for a moment and let out a solemn sigh. However, Scott wore a knowing grin.

"I guess the magic doctor dude gave you the same memo."

Carol laughed softly at Scott's remark. She was about to discuss the current situation with him when the sudden occurrence of a loud static caused him to contract and clutch the sides of his head. She lurched back in surprise. It took her a moment to realize the noise was coming from inside his helmet.

His face was taken over by pain as he exclaimed through clenched teeth, "Holy crap Ava!"

Carol was able to make out a horse, annoyed voice state, "Quit whining and shut up. We're trying to get you out of there."

Scott barely had enough time to grab Carol's forearm before they were both pulled out of the quantum realm.


	2. What now?

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Carol and Scott make it out of the quantum realm and find Ava and Luis. The world has changed and they begin to run into a bit of trouble...

The first thing Scott was conscious of was cold, hard concrete. He opened his eyes and groaned. He was back on top of the roof where he had entered the quantum realm, next to Luis’s light orange van with the X-Con logo that he, Hope, Hank, and Janet had used as a portal. The sky was taken over by clouds the color of ash and dust. The air was windy and carried the smell of gasoline. Scott attempted to sit up but was immediately grabbed by his shoulders and shaken.

“Scotty! Oh my gosh! Are you ok?” A frightened, familiar face questioned.

“Luis? What? Yeah, I’m fine. What just happened?”

Luis’s jet-black hair was messy, and his dark brown eyes looked tired and concerned. He wore a mustard colored tunic and baggy, ripped jeans. Scott wasn’t sure if the jeans had come with the rips in them or not.

“Scott,” Ava cut in, clinging onto a rolling chair for balance by Luis’s van, her voice sounding even raspier than before, “Did you get it?”

Scott’s eyes widened in realization, “Oh my gosh! Yes! Sorry! I got it!”

He fumbled while regaining his grip on it and handed her the silver, metal container filled with healing particles. As soon as she opened it, the color slowly began to return to her face. She was wearing her Ghost suit and her dark, orange-tipped hair was held back in a low, messy ponytail.

“Ghost started, you know, ‘ghosting’ again! Not the normal kind, well, I guess ghosting isn’t normal anyways. It was the kind where she was, like, falling through the stairs and stuff. We couldn’t find Hope’s mom anywhere and no one told us where you were, then all that dusting stuff started happening!” Luis explained.

“Dusting stuff?” Scott asked nervously.

“Yeah, Scott where have you been? It’s all over the news!”

Scott’s helmet retracted into his suit and he frowned.

“Oh, yeah! I forgot. My bad. So anyways, there was this big purple alien dude from space, and he was all like, ‘Oh my God, there are too many people in the world so instead of doubling the resources with my magic baseball glove I’m going to just kill them all.’ And then the Avengers were all like, ‘Nuh uh bro! You’re in our town now, sucker!’ But then Iron-Man went missing, and the other Avengers had this fight in Wakanda and the purple alien dude used that magic baseball glove and then a bunch of people started disintegrating!” Luis ranted. “So then I was like ‘Damn!’ cause Dave and Kurt were having this argument on Fruit Loops vs Fruity Pebbles, which it’s Fruit Loops by the way, and then they just turned to dust Man! So like, for the next few days everything’s all nuts and then Ava called and she was all like, ‘Yo Luis! Bill’s all dusted now and I like, really need those healing particles and stuff.’ But I couldn’t find you anywhere and I thought you had died Man! But then both of us went to go find you, but Hank had taken the van and I guess Uber doesn’t operate during a global crisis.”

“We also weren’t expecting the extra passenger.” Ava commented, her voice nearly clear again.

“Oh yeah! Guys, this Carol. Carol, this is, wait, where did you…?” Scott turned around and noticed Carol was behind him at the edge of the roof. Her short, blond hair rested on her shoulders and he could now tell that her uniform was red and blue with a gold star on her chest. Her face looked pale as she was crouched down on one knee, holding a beeper, inspecting a pile of ash.

Realization hit Scott across the face, “Guys, where’s Hope?”

He turned back around just in time to see Luis and Ava exchanged a worried glance.

“Scotty…” Luis began.

He sighed. He didn’t need Luis to finish because he already knew what he was going to say. He stood up and walked over to the edge of the roof. Luis walked up beside him moments later. Carol stood up and a small breeze blew the remaining ashes away. Ava, still clasping the container, sat down at the edge of the roof and let her legs dangle off the edge.

“So, what now?” Ava asked solemnly.

“I don’t know,” Scott whispered, “Hank, Janet, Bill, Dave, Kurt,” he paused, “Hope. They shouldn’t have gone down. Not like that.”

Luis squeezed his shoulder.

“What was his name?” Carol asked Luis after a long silence.

“Who? Do you mean the purple alien dude?”

Carol nodded.

“I think it was Danos or something.” Luis replied.

“Thanos.” Ava corrected smugly.

“Woman! I’m telling you! The TV news dude said Danos!” Luis exclaimed, making it fairly obvious that they had had this argument before.

“And I’m telling you he had an accent!” Ava countered.

Luis and Ava continued going back and forth in their debate while Carol and Scott looked out on the city from the edge of the roof.

“Congratulations. You have a face.” Carol remarked sarcastically.

Scott rolled his eyes, but a hint of a smile tugged at the corners of his mouth.

“I was desperately hoping Strange was wrong.” Carol said solemnly.

“Me too.” Scott paused, “Carol, do you think there’s a way we could just, I don’t know, fix all this?”

“No.” Carol replied truthful, “I just hope there’s a way.”

“Why does the doctor dude think if we went up against him, with half the Avengers, that it would be any different than when the Avengers went up against him at full strength before?”

Carol shrugged, “But would you do it? Even though it’s practically suicide?”

“Help the Avengers bring down Thanos? Of course!”

“Then as long as there are people who would lay down their lives to protect or avenge others, then we might just have a shot.”

“A shot at what? I thought you said you thought they were gone. This isn’t like any other time, this time, we lost and other people are paying the price for it. We should have been there.”

Carol didn’t reply for a moment, “We’re here now. Right now, the best we can do is avenge them. Turn Thanos’s biggest ‘triumph’ into his biggest regret.”

Scott smiled, “Well alright then. I like it! First decent plan today, let’s do it!”

He held up his hand and Carol waited a moment before she gave him a high-five.

“Your moods always change this quickly?” She smirked.

“Just trying to be optimistic.”

“Scott,” Ava snapped concernedly, raising a finger to her lips.

Luis, wide eyed, pointed up at the clouds. There was a faint humming noise coming from above, and the clouds seemed to be moving in an unnatural fashion. The wind abruptly picked up speed. A speaker cracked to life and a low, male voice boomed over it.

“Carol Danvers and Scott Lang. Drop all weapons and potentially weapons. Stand down or we will open fire. I repeat. Stand down or we _will _open fire.”

“Crud.” Scott and Carol muttered at the same time.

“You’re Carol _Danvers_? I thought you were dead!” Ava whispered.

“On my signal, everyone make a break for the van.” Scott instructed in a hushed voice.

Ava and Luis nodded.

“I’ll hold them off. You all do what you have to do,” Carol whispered.

Scott glanced at Carol, “And how are you going to do that? A carrier like that probably holds _tons_ of ammo.”

Carol wore a dangerous smirk.

He studied her for a moment, “Alright then. So, on the count of, uh, eleven.” Scott suggested.

“Just do three.” Ava whispered annoyedly.

“Fine. One, two, three!”

“Bye suckers!” Luis yelled at the sky.

Scott, Luis, and Ava sprinted for the van.

“Code Red! Code Red!” The man over the speaker barked.

Scott leapt into the driver seat. Ava used her phasing to jump through the door into the passenger seat. Luis barely had time to shut the backdoor of the car before Scott revved the engine. He drove off the side of the thirty-story building, and as he did, the car shrank to the size of an ant. When they were close enough to the ground, Scott let the car return to its normal size. However, the impact the car made with the ground still caused Scott, Ava, and Luis to jerk forward. When Scott’s head violently hit the wheel, Luis’s car horn began blaring.

“So where to?” Scott asked Ava, rubbing his bleeding temple.

“What? Are you kidding me? I thought you had a plan!” A panicked Ava exclaimed.

“Oh my gosh! Just drive!” Luis shrieked from the backseat of the car.


	3. The ANTmazing chase (Scott likes puns and you have to deal with it)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Title (kind of) says all. Carol, Scott, Luis, and Ava are chased through San Francisco in a marvel movie style car chase because this is a marvel movie fanfiction. Plus, things are starting to get whack.

Carol stood atop the roof, her short, blond hair blowing ferociously behind her from the wind of the turbine. Her fists glowing with power, she flew up to level with the helicarrier. The helicarrier had disabled their camouflage mode and all the guns aboard the ship locked onto Carol.

“Last chance Danvers.” The man over the speaker warned.

Carol closed her eyes. When she opened them again, they glowed a bright shade of sunset orange. All the sudden, the helicarrier began to rapidly fire. Carol dodged most of the bullets and the few that hit her ricocheted off her bulletproof suit. She focused her energy blasts on the large machine guns at the sides and top of the ship. She also placed a meteor-sized dent in the rear turbine of the helicarrier, but about twenty miniature aircrafts emerged from the bottom it and began to shoot at Carol. Carol took out multiple aircrafts in a jet of light, but almost half of them sped right over her without making any attempt to assault her. In the mere moment she was distracted, a missile was fired behind her from the ship and the full force of it sent her flying backwards along with it. Carol and the missile were headed straight for a tall office building. She quickly whipped around to grab ahold of the top of the missile and divert its direction. Teeth gritted, she resisted the force of the missile, and her feet lightly tapped the glass of the building. She forced the missile upwards and let go, letting it explode high in the atmosphere. Two more missiles fired and targeted Carol, but this time she flew and lead them to the main engine on the ship, speeding out of the way just before they made impact. The beaten-up helicarrier was too unstable to remain airborne and began to descend. A loud explosion caused Carol to whip around, and then she instantly remembered the remaining aircrafts. They hovered together in large, tracking formation.

“Dammit.” Carol muttered, racing to find the van first before it was too late.

* * *

“Yo Scotty!” Luis exclaimed while fumbling with a much-needed seat-belt, “The blonde chick you met earlier. She’s on fire! Maybe literally, I can’t really see too good from here.”

“Uh huh, Luis that’s great.” Scott pretended to be listening as he cut a red light.

“How the heck is she still alive?” Ava muttered adjusting the rear-view mirror.

“What do you mean?” Scott asked, barely avoiding a collision with a pickup truck.

“Carol Danvers partnered with S.H.I.E.L.D and then mysteriously disappeared. Everyone thought she was dead.”

“I’m detecting a pattern. Didn’t everyone think Janet was dead too, but she was really in the quantum realm? Did anyone think I was dead?”

Luis replied no and Ava said yes at the same time.

“Okay…” Scott trailed off awkwardly, then attempted to change the subject, “Wow, there’s almost no traffic today!”

Ava rolled her eyes, “Or you could say there’s half as much traffic as there normally is.”

“Right.” Scott realized, then jolted at the close proximity of the missile that nearly crashed into the building they were passing, “Holy Sh-,”

Just than a black van tore out of a nearly invisible alleyway and aimed to impact the left side of the van.

“Gun it Scotty!” Luis shouted.

Luis’s van couldn’t escape with the bumper, however, they still managed to escape a majority of the impact from the black van that ended up crashing into a nearby convenience store.

“What the hell…” Scott muttered as another black van came racing up from behind them.

“Oh my God!” Luis cried, “I barely survived the last car chase we were in! This is, like, the second one in the span of a few weeks!”

Scott made a sharp left as three more black vans joined the first one. Then one of them began shooting at the glass of the back window. Ava opened the glove box, pulled out a gun of her own, rolled down her window, and opened fire at the vans. Scott attempted to open a pouch on his belt as one of the vans manage to take out the rear, right tire. He abruptly sped up, then hit the break allowing most of the vans to fly past as he made another left. Scott finally got the pouch open. He handed its contents to Luis.

“What the heck are these?” Luis asked, holding up a miniature disc.

“The red ones shrink stuff and the blue ones make stuff bigger.” Scott glanced anxiously back at the new black vans emerging onto the streets.

Luis tossed a red disc at a van nearly bumper to bumper with them out of the shattered back window. The van shrank to the size of a Hot Wheels car before being run over by another black van speeding after them. Ava and Luis held back most of the black vans that threatened to get a little too close for comfort, however, one of the vans made an extremely lucky shot that took out the other rear tire.

Scott cursed, just before he noticed one of the black vans was now as tall as a building in the rear-view mirror.

“Luis!” Scott and Ava both whipped around to face a panic-struck Luis.

“My bad! I accidently used a blue one!”

Ava fired at another van that drove underneath the giant van, “Well shrink it back!”

“I’m all out of the red ones!” Luis frantically searched through the discs.

The vans seemed to slow down slightly. Scott’s attention was directed upwards where he saw almost a dozen miniature aircrafts were positioned above them.

Luis laughed nervously, “I knew it! Oh, we are so dead!”

“Ok, time for plan B.” Scott let go of the wheel and put on his helmet.

“No, plan A. Plan A for, Arrah I can’t believe you didn’t mention this before we got into this freaking car chase!” Ava exclaimed.

“Uh, how about plan A for, Ants?” Scott said enthusiastically.

Ava shuddered, “You are actually the cringiest person on the planet right now.”

Scott didn’t pass up an opportunity to tease Ava back, “Woah Ava, it looks like you just saw a _ghost_. It must be because…”

“Oh my gosh! We get it! You’re a dad! You make bad jokes! I’m sorry I made the van big! I’m sorry I went to jail! I can change! Just make it stop!” Luis cried, panicked.

“Shut up and do what you’ve gotta do, or else I’m chucking you at the van.” Ava threatened.

“Ok, ok I’m going.” Scott was cut off when one of the aircrafts above them exploded and small pieces of debris came raining down on them.

Luis shifted to get a better look at the window, “Yo Scotty! I think that blonde chick from the quantum realm is back!”

Scott turned to face Ava, “You got it from here?”

Ava smiled. Scott rolled down the window. He shrank and leapt out onto the back of a flying ant. Ava phased into the driver’s seat and took the wheel.

“Good boy.” Scott cooed, scratching the ant’s head, “I’m gonna call you Ant-won!”

Carol was up in the air, taking out the aircrafts that had just begun to rain bullets down on Luis’s van. Scott slipped through a crack on the hood of one of the aircrafts and destroyed the engine from the inside. He escaped on Ant-won just before it exploded.

“Hey! Long time no see!” Scott joked, flying past Carol.

“That’s funny. I could have sworn you were taller.” Carol remarked sarcastically.

Scott and Carol both flinched at the blistering blare of a car horn. They both looked down to see the giant van was gaining on Ava and Luis, threatening to plow them over. Plus, they were headed straight for a bridge that looked like the peak of it had been taken out by a bomb. Scott assumed given the current situation, it probably had. 

“Carol…” Scott began, stunned.

Carol flew up next to him after taking out another aircraft, “I’ve got the skies.” She reassured Scott, “You go help your friends!”

Scott grinned and flew down with Ant-won to the ground. He passed by another black van, speeding towards Luis’s van, striving for a head-on collision. They would have succeeded too, if hundreds of ants under Scott’s control hadn’t covered the van’s windshield. The shocked driver severed and tried to turn on the windshield wipers but crashed into a nearby comic shop. Scott frantically waved at Ava and Luis as he past. 

“Guys! The bridge!” He screamed, but they sped by too fast to even notice.

By now, the giant black van was shifting slightly to the right to crush Luis’s van between its tire and the street.

“Hey!” Scott exclaimed, leaping off Ant-won and quickly making an adjustment to his belt, so when he pushed the button, he grew to the small height as the black van, “Why don’t you pick on someone your own size?”

The van sped up, but Scott resisted its force. Both of his hands found a grip on the headlights and his feet dung into the road. His teeth gritted as he felt the full force of the van exerted on him that slowly pushed him backwards. He looked up and saw Carol flying up behind him through the reflection in the driver’s sunglasses. She placed her hands on the front bumper of the car and together, Carol and Scott forced the van backwards.

“I think I have a plan!” Carol exclaimed, “I’ll distract the driver while you shrink under the car and grow big again,”

Scott nodded, “But for the record, that’s not a plan. That’s a suggestion.”

“And the difference is?”

“Complexity.” Scott suggested, “Convenience. Some construction paper wouldn’t hurt either.”

“Okay, so, do you want to stop,” She gestured towards the van, “The monster truck from killing people, or…”

“Oh yeah, absolutely! Just making sure you knew the difference between a suggestion and construction paper. And a van and a monster truck.”

Carol rolled her eyes, “Shut up and break the van, will you?”

Carol and Scott released the van at the same time. She flew up to the windshield and fired an energy blast through the glass while Scott shrank under the van. He raised a fist above his head and pressed the button on the glove of his suit. The van was launched into the sky, were it seemed suspended for a moment. Then Carol fired another energy blast at the van, and its remains came crashing to the ground like meteors. After dodging the debris, Scott returned to his normal size and high fived Carol. Then they flew, or you know, shrank down and rode on the back of Ant-won, back to Luis’s fan ahead.

Once they finally caught up, the backdoors of the van swung open and Luis stood there, clinging onto the quantum portal attached to his van.

“Scotty!” He yelled, waving and smiling.

“Oh,” Scott laughed sadly, “He’s going to get himself killed.”

Scott leapt through and returned to his normal size, landing next to Luis while Carol hovered over the roof firing energy blasts at the vans.

“Scotty! You’re alive!” Luis cried happily.

“Yeah! …Wait a second…” Scott tried to remember as they sped by a slow-down sigh, “I was going to tell you something, and it was really important, but now I can’t remember.”

“Oh my God, I hate it when that happens! I feel like that happens all the time though.” Luis commented as one of the vans exploded behind them.

“I know right? Then it turns out to have been really important you end up regretting that you didn’t remember earlier.” Scott continued as a large body of water came into view.

Carol appeared in the back threshold of the van, “Guys! The bridge!” She pointed to the bombed bridge.

Scott gasped, “Oh yeah! That’s what it was! Thanks Carol!” His face, “Wait.”

There were no more turns to make to avoid heading straight for the bridge, and if they stopped, the people in the black vans would most likely make them wish they had drove off the bridge, into the ocean. The black van that was now behind them was a different model from the others. They fired something at them, but it was not a bullet. Instead, it maneuvered and clung onto one of the front tires.

“What the fu-,” Ava was cut off when the small device exploded.

Luis’s van began to hydroplane of the wet, slippery bridge.

“No, no, no, no, no!” Ava cried as she lost control of the van.

Carol was flung into the backseat by the sudden movement and both doors were forced closed. The hydroplaning van was about to fly straight off the bridge, but suddenly made a curve to the left. The railing on the edge of the bridge was able to prevent the van from plummeting into the ocean. The front wheels of the van hung over the side of the bridge. The silence was ringing in Scott’s ears until he could find the sound of his own heartbeat again. Carol, who had been hurled to the front of the van in all the spinning let out an uneasy breath. Luis was desperately clinging onto Scott’s arm. Suddenly, a loud, intense pounding on the backdoor made them all jump. The backdoor was forced open. A tall woman with short, black hair that fairly reminded him of Hope’s when they first met had a low, commanding voice.

“All of you! Come out here with your hands up! I repeat! Come out here with your hands up!”

“Ant-won!” Scott ended up saying out loud as a swarm of ants came at the woman from behind.

“What the?!”

In the mere moment the woman was distracted, Scott, Luis, Carol, and Ava dashed out the back of the van.

As soon as they stepped outside, they were faced with an army of people in black uniforms, each with a pistol and a silver, flacon pin.

“Uh, Ava. Aren’t S.H.I.E.L.D people supposed to be the good guys?” Luis asked nervously.

Ava shrugged, “How should I know? I stopped associating with them after they tried to kill me. Also, they were corrupted by Hydra at some point too, so…”

“Uh, hey guys!” Scott said, loudly and awkwardly, “So, you know, it’s kinda been a rough day. Getting in a deadly car chase was definitely not on the, um, agenda. How about we just call it even since you tried to kill us, and we-,”

Scott froze as something cold and metal pressed against the back of his neck. An obnoxious ringing began pounding in his head. He slow sank down onto his knees. Black spots started forming in his vision and expanded until everything went black and then became silent.


	4. The Fangirl

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Carol catches up with Maria who explains all that she missed and they also meet... Kamala Khan!

"I'm sorry.”

Carol looked up at a woman in a black uniform with a S.H.E.I.L.D. pin on her chest. She had dark skin, short, jet black hair, and warm brown eyes.

"Crap, you're up!" She looked startled, "Uh, how long were you listening?"

Carol shrugged. She was confined in some sort of interrogation room and secured in a holding chair. Her arms were locked in metal cuffs that were attached to the chair and her feet were locked in metal boots attached to the floor. She tried to break free of them.

“That’s vibrainium honey. It won’t hold you forever, I know, but it’ll at least give me enough time to talk to you.”

When Carol didn't say anything back, she continued, "Look, I don’t know where the hell you’ve been for the last twenty years, but a lot has gone down around here. And while the capture of you and Lang was unauthorized, we still need all the information we can get out of you two.”

"Huh. I never thought I’d see you working for S.H.E.I.L.D. It actually, really suits you. I bet the air force experience helps with the covert part of your job. Have you actually flown everything here?”

She blinked before letting it out, "Dammit Carol! I thought you were dead!"

"Maria…"

Maria paced the room, "Don't _Maria_, me! And don’t tell me any crap S.H.I.E.L.D already told me on your 'disappearance'."

Carol sighed, “No, you’re absolutely right. You and Monica… you guys don’t deserve this. I’m so sorry, I… I’m a long way away from the person I was twenty years ago. And you guys, you were my family. Friends are the family you get to choose, right? And, God, I just, I didn’t want anything to change after the accident, but let’s be real, so much did. I have no excuse, and I don’t think there’s anything in this universe I could do to possibly make it up to you. I’m sorry I wasn’t there for you two, I really wish I hadn’t got so wrapped up in this, it got me to drift away from my family. That’s all on me.”

“Something… something happened,” Maria began, her voice shaking a little, “Monica, she wanted this line of work so bad. She didn’t want to just work behind the scenes, she wanted to get out there and fight. And that’s exactly what she did, top of her class… but there was an accident… It gave her these powers, she never questioned what she should use them for, thanks to you, but back before S.H.E.I.L.D. collapsed, H.Y.D.R.A. did. They wanted a weapon, but we both refused. And it broke my heart, but for her safety, she had to go before they got her first. She went out into the cosmos and came back after S.H.E.I.L.D. collapsed, but she had already found so much more out there, so much more she wanted to protect. She reminded me so much of you. We keep in touch and she visits almost every month, and I couldn’t be prouder of the person she’s grown to be.” She sighed, “So, I understand. There’s a whole universe out there Carol. And no matter where it takes you, we’ll always be family, even if we don’t see each other for a while. I would never want you to ever feel obligated to stay or guilty for not.”

She gave a sad smile, “Thank you Maria.”

She shrugged, wiping her eyes, “Don’t thank me yet. There’s a lot to sort out and not much time before S.H.E.I.L.D. finds you and Lang more useful as science experiments.”

“What happened?”

“Everybody here is hypersensitive, for good reason. Any noticeable shift in our atmosphere, say a quantum portal opening, puts them in the position to extract all the information they can.”

“Hey, we’re friends! I used to work with S.H.E.I.L.D. Can’t they just ask Fury to,”

Maria hesitated, “Fury’s… gone.”

Carol blinked, “Gone, what do you mean gone?”

“Gone as in, he didn’t make it.”

Carol’s eyes lowered to the ground as she nodded slowly. Fury couldn’t really be gone. Again, half the universe was, so why did this seem so unlikely? If she had possibly known… there was so much she would have said.

“He sent me a page. I guess, before everything.”

She nodded, “Is that why you came?”

“Well, actually, the quantum realm doesn’t have great signal, so I didn’t get it until I got out.”

“What were you doing in there in the first place?”

Carol wrinkled her brow, “It was, really weird. So there’s this realm, it sounds weird because it’s not like another dimension or something like that, anyways, it’s, or was, called Asguard. And, you can really only get there with this thing called the Bifrost. But that was the thing, it was destroyed, and I could see it, or what was left of it at least. Then, I guess I got to close because I was pulled into the quantum realm. It doesn’t really make much sense, but I guess when the realm was destroyed, that reality of it just sort of collapsed into the quantum realm. I know, it’s completely crazy.”

“Carol, I just purple wrinkly grape just murdered half the universe. Nothing’s crazy anymore.”

There was a moment of silence before Carol asked her question, “What about Luis and Ava?”

Maria nodded, “They’re fine. They’ve already been sent home under surveillance. Ava doesn’t talk much, and for all the hell S.H.E.I.L.D./H.Y.D.R.A. put her through, didn’t blame her. And Luis… his mouth is a real open can of worms isn’t it?”

“Just as long as they’re safe.”

Silence.

“What happened with H.Y.D.R.A.?”

"Oh yeah. I forgot you didn’t know. H.Y.D.R.A. had planted itself inside of S.H.E.I.L.D. and compromised it. Then S.H.E.I.L.D. collapsed with H.Y.D.R.A. and it was a while before we began to rebuild. The government has been doing some weird stuff lately, so S.H.I.E.L.D has been stepping out a little more. After H.Y.D.R.A. took over, no one was really for bring S.H.I.E.L.D back, but eventually, Fury couldn't stand watching things like this go down without a say in it, so S.H.I.E.L.D was just really in the shadows for a while."

“Oh my God.”

“Yeah. The Black Widow released all our files to the public. Well, most of them at least. But S.H.E.I.L.D. is the kind of organization where even our secrets have secrets. She knew that. She also most likely knew we’d be back. Eventually.”

After a moment or two later of silence in which it seemed like Maria was listening to something, she held up a small remote, pushed the center button, and the cuffs restraining Carol released their grip. She stood up and held her wrist in her opposite hand circled it around to regain circulation.

“You’re letting me go?”

She shook her head sadly, “Not exactly, but I’ve got the all clear to let you free of the cuffs. Not my sight though, but that shouldn’t be an issue considering I tried my best to keep your ass out of trouble for all our years in the air force.”

Carol rolled her eyes at this.

“Come on, let’s take a walk.”

She followed Maria out the door she could have sworn was a wall, but still it had slide apart to form a doorway.

They were standing right in the middle of what looked like a giant dome. There were people all around coming in and out of briefings and hallways from all sides. The tiles were white with gray splatters.

"This used to be a subway station, but we fixed it up a little bit."

"Woah," Carol looked up at the glass roof, "So, how do,"

"Planes miss a giant glass dome in the ground?" Maria finished, "We're under a nation park, but tourists never come out this far, and if people did find it, they would only see a hill."

"That's incredible."

They passed a couple of rooms with slightly murky windows that Carol assumed were one-way mirrors. A few S.H.E.I.L.D. members gave quiet gasps or whispered amongst each other as they passed.

“Are we going anywhere in particular?”

“Actually, yes.”

They turned a corner and Maria sighed, “She didn’t…”

“Who? Didn’t do what?” Carol saw what Maria must have been referring to. Scott was standing outside of an open cell talking to a young girl. She seemed very bubbly in the way she was bouncing a little as she spoke. She had long, dark brown hair and light brown skin. A long, red scarf draped down her back over her shoulders and her navy-blue suit with a yellow lightning bolt. A light blue mask surrounded her warm brown eyes.

“Kamala!” Maria called, rolling her eyes, “What did I say about fangirling over suspects?”

“But Agent Rambeua! It’s Ant-Man!” The young girl, Kamala, exclaimed, “He stopped Darren Cross and fought with Captain America! And then Wasp came in and they saved her mom, stopped a ghost lady from killing her mom, and stopped a guy from buying the stuff they needed to use to save her mom while being hunted down by the FBI!”

“Yeah, and what relevance does this have to do with him standing out here?”

But she wasn’t paying attention anymore. She saw Carol and her eyes lit up as she let out a gasp, “You’re, you’re Captain Marvel!” She breathed, “Oh my God, oh my God, oh my God.”

“And, I’ve lost her.” Maria sighed, “Alright weirdos. Let’s go.”

Scott wrinkled his brow, “Where are we going?”

“To encounter the Supreme Intelligence.” She teased and Carol nudged her in the ribs.

Scott looked even more confused and the kid looked like she was about to burst at any given second. Carol wasn’t sure if she was that considerably good with kids, well, apart from Monica, but she might as well say something to her.

“Hey, I’m Carol.”

“Oh, I know. I know everything about you!” Her face fell, “Oh man, that sounded creepier out loud.”

Carol gave a light laugh as she continued, “Not like that, I’m just a really big fan. You've been my idol ever since I started working with S.H.I.E.L.D and I found out how you saved Earth! We’ve teamed up ever since this whole terrigin mist thing gave me powers. I had this whole speech written out in case I got to meet you, but here you are, and I've forgotten my speech.”

"That would have been really awkward for both of us, so I'm glad we can move right past the speech part."

"Woah, no one believed me." She ran her fingers through her own hair, "I knew you were real! I knew you weren't dead!"

Carol smiled, "Kamala, right?"

Kamala blushed, "Yes! Kamala Khan, aka Ms. Marvel!" She suddenly looked embarrassed, "Crap! Did I just say that?" She muttered.

"Ms. Marvel?"

"Uh…" Kamala blushed, "It's kinda my made-up name I use when I'm fighting crime and stuff."

“What kind of crime do you fight? If you were to give it a level.”

“Well, I’m kind of just ‘friendly neighborhood’, you know? Someone’s gotta look out for New Jersey.” She sighed, “S.H.E.I.L.D. took me in after the Earth shattered. Other people weren’t so lucky. My whole family is gone. And my friends… the government is trying a child protection program, but that involves dragging people apart to who knows where, and this is their home! This is probably, like, the worst time to start breaking people apart."

Carol gave a small smile, “I like that. So, what kind of powers do you have?”

“Oh, I’m a polymorph! Basically, I can change into anything or anyone, see?” She held up her fist which grew bigger and disproportional to the rest of her body.

“Wow, that’s really neat! Probably really helpful for the disguise part of your job, right?”

“Yeah! But even before I had powers, I always had a knack for that sort of thing. By 2012 I cosplayed as a different Avenger each day! Anyways, in, like, third grade, I dressed up as you and everyone thought I was insane, cause it was a Veterans Day activity or something and we were supposed to do something to honor our heroes."

"So, you're an Avengers fan then?"

Kamala wore wide, proud smile, "That's just a little bit of an understatement."

Carol laughed, "Well, ok then."

She didn’t even notice that Scott had stopped ahead of her and ended up walking into him.

“Sorry, I didn’t see you…”

Scott clutched the backpack tightly to his chest. His brow was furrowed in confusion, making him look like he was lost in thought and his sea green eyes looked unfocused.

"Hey, um, are you ok?”

He nodded slowly, “I gotta go.” He muttered before taking off.

“Hey! Where are you going?” Maria called after him.

“Wait, woah, woah, woah, what happened.”

Maria huffed, “I don’t know, I mentioned another agent I work with who just came out and I’m trying to get better at remembering to use her preferred name Cassie and not screwing it up with Caleb, but as soon as I said Cassie it was like something triggered him and he got all nervous. We’ve got to stop him before-,”

And just then Scott shrank down.

Maria checked her belt and cursed, “He’s got his gloves back. He’s on the run.”

“If you’re about to ask me to manhunt my friend, I’m sorry Maria, but-,”

“No! If he’s loose S.H.E.I.L.D is gonna assume it’s ok to open fire!”

Carol blinked, “Sh…” She glanced at Kamala, “…oot. Alright, let’s go.”


	5. Saving the Universe is Never Easy

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Scott is grief-struck by Cassie's death and Carol, Kamala, and Maria try to help him through it.

Maria took Kamala in one of their fancy S.H.E.I.L.D-mobiles or whatever, but flying was faster. If Maria was right… this didn’t feel right.

Carol finally lightly landed on the ground in a neighbor that matched the address and description Maria gave her.

This _really_ didn’t feel right. One of the houses’ doors was wide open. She hesitated before pushing the door open just a little.

“Hey… it’s me.” If he was in here, she didn’t want to scare him. But if he wasn’t… she would deal with whoever it was later.

“Scott?” She stepped into the living room. He was in the middle of it, his face buried in his knees. A single curtain was pulled back just enough to let in the light revealing the dust circling in the air around them.

She didn’t know what to say, not that it would have mattered. There is nothing she could have said that would have made things different, or even just better than they were now.

He sniffled; he had been crying, “She’s…” His voice died out.

Carol cautiously placed her hand on his shoulder.

He sighed, “I… I don’t think I can say it. I actually don’t think I can say it without losing my mind.”

By now Kamala was standing next to Carol and Maria was behind them. Scott sounded like he was choking back a cry. Kamala got down next to him and wrapped her arms around him in a hug. It was a moment before he hugged her back.

He eventually looked up at Carol with tears in his eyes, “Her name’s Cassie… my daughter.”

Carol nodded, a sympathetic smile on her face. She wished she wished she could have said something more comforting, but exactly could you say that mattered? The man just found out his daughter died in the time he was gone. This isn’t something you just say, ‘It’s ok’ to.

“Scott… I’m so sorry.” Maria replied. Carol knew that this had made her best friend think of her daughter.

He closed his eyes and nodded.

“Well, we… we can get her back, right? We have to. I mean, all my family and friends died in the snap and when we meet up with the Avengers, we’ll bring them all back, won’t we?”

Carol was now definitely not in the mood to break the young girl’s spirit. But… that wasn’t something she could promise.

“We can’t-,”

“Don’t say it.” Carol warned, cutting him off.

“Oh, come on Carol! Ok, maybe it was a little bit of a stretch before, but I was willing to be optimistic and go with it and maybe even, God forbid, believe in it. But do you actually think we stand a chance? If we went up against Thanos it would even matter, and we wouldn’t all be dead too? It doesn’t matter what some doctor wizard guy said in the quantum realm, we don’t even have any proof that that actually even happened. And do you really think we can bring people back from the dead? Have we all just gone delusional or am I the only one who thinks that sounds absolutely insane?”

She studied him sadly, “No. It’s insane. Stupid even. But that doesn’t mean I’m any less willing to try. And that wasn’t what I was going to say. You have every right to be upset, or hurt, or even angry, but you can’t lose yourself in it. Don’t let yourself change because of it. You’re as optimistic as hell and you’re going to need it. A lot of other people are going to need it too. The Scott Lang I just met today, if he knew there was even a point .001% chance of saving everyone and making it out alive, he would’ve already been halfway there.”

So much for a comforting approach. Compassion wasn’t her strong suit, but she would’ve hated to see his daughter and him both have to die. He was staring at her intently the entire time she spoke.

“I’m sorry. I…” He sighed, “No, you’re right. You’re absolutely right. I wouldn’t be able to live with myself if I had just given up on her and accepted… nevermind. Besides, no one said saving the universe was going to be easy.”

“No one ever has, and I highly doubt they ever will.”

The four turned to find a tall, red-headed woman standing in the doorway.

“I’m Pepper Potts, head of S.H.E.I.L.D. intelligence.” She sighed as Carol stood defensively and balled her hands into fists, “And no, I’m not here to arrest you.”

She shrugged, “Sorry.”

Pepper studied her before nodding, “No, it’s ok. You can’t be too careful. However, we do need you, and by we, I mean the Avengers. Thanos has wiped out half the universe and nearly half the team. The remaining Avengers are currently in Wakanda. I’ll explain more on the way.” She paused, “That is, if you two are coming.”

Carol exchanged a glance with Scott, and he nodded.

“Under one condition.” Carol replied, “Four of us; the kid and Maria.”

Kamala gasped excitedly. Maria, however, did not look so sure.

“Hold on, you can’t be serious."

Carol shrugged, "Why wouldn't I be?"

"How about because she's a child?"

"I'm fourteen." Kamala corrected Maria.

Pepper looked undecided, "I believe she's fully capable, but Carol, I'm not so sure about this."

“Wait a sec…” Scott began, “How is this any different from when Tony recruited that Spider-kid to take on Captain America?"

"An Iron-Man and Spider-Man team up? Awesome!" Kamala exclaimed.

Pepper smiled, "I think that might be the most valid point of this discussion.”

"But wait, how old is Spider-Man?" Kamala asked.

"I don't know, I think he's, like, fifteen or something?" Scott suggested.

"Really? Wow, that's cool!"

"What do you think kid?" Carol turned to Kamala.

"So, basically, you want me to team up with you guys, go to some other country, reassemble the avengers, oh my gosh that sounded so awesome, and then go up against this crazy alien dude who killed half of everybody and will most likely kill us the first chance he gets with he's magic glove?"

Scott shrugged, "Yeah, that's pretty much it."

"Oh my gosh! Yes! This is the best day of my life!" Kamala exclaimed, jumping up and down with excitement.

"Well, that's settles that then." Carol smiled.

Pepper looked at her, "Maria told me you were a pilot in the Air Force. Do you think you can fly this?" She gestured to the plane that was outside the door. It was huge and Carol had no idea how they didn’t hear it land, even if it had cloaked its sound.

Carol wore a daring smile, "I think I can manage."

“Good, cause I think autopilot believes it's a sin to go over 30 miles per hour." She laughed, "It would be a rather long ride to Wakanda. Still probably going to be a lengthy ride as it is so we should get going.”

Carol stayed behind as Scott stood up off the ground.

“Are you going to be ok?”

He smiled sadly, “Yeah, I’ll be fine.” He hugged her, “Thank you.”

She hugged him back, “We have to at least try.”

He nodded in agreement as they left after the others. However, Carol knew exactly to read the looks on her best friend’s face.

“You’re not coming?”

Maria smiled sadly, “Sorry Captain, not this time. Someone’s gotta keep S.H.E.I.L.D. up and running.”

“And kidnapping people.” Scott teased. That was a good sign.

"For the record, S.H.I.E.L.D didn't 'kidnapped' you."

Scott and Carol both raised an eyebrow at her.

"Ok, it's just that 'kidnap' is a strong word."

"An accurate one." Kamala pointed out, who was now on her phone.

"Who are you trying to support here?" Maria asked her.

"Captain Marvel and Ant-Man." Kamala replied looking up from her phone, "Duh."

"Ugh, you're such a fangirl! What are you doing right now?" Maria teased her.

"Thank you." Kamala stated proudly, "I'm, uh…" She paused, "Writing down ideas for my fanfiction before I forget." She finished sheepishly.

"Uh huh.” Maria shot her a satisfied smirk.

It hurt having to part again after just seeing each other, but Carol gave her a hug before they left, “I’ll be back. A lot sooner this time.” She promised.

“Eh you better be for your sake.” She grinned, “And you also have to say hi to Monica too.”

They waved and said their final goodbyes before Carol stepped aboard the plane. Carol took the piolet seat while Kamala stood near her.

“What’s up kid?”

"Oh, I just wanted to say thank you Captain Marvel! You know, for standing up to let me come and it’s really amazing to finally met you!"

"Kid, call me Carol." Carol smiled.

Kamala went to hug Carol, and Carol went for a handshake. In response to each other, Carol then went to hug Kamala, and Kamala went for a handshake.

"Uh, how bout a high-five?" Kamala suggested.

Carol laughed, "Sure."

They high-fived and Kamala went to the back to play Uno with Scott while Pepper observed, and Carol took off.


	6. Paper Football

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Tony and Nebula fly back to Earth in the Milano. The chapter and title is based off of the adorable paper football scene in Endgame because it was just so cute and I also wanted it to apply to this universe.

“What if someone had died tonight? Different story, right? Cause that’s on you! And if you died, I feel like that’s on me.”

Tony buried his face in his arms. It didn’t matter anymore, because Peter was gone. He had seen him, Strange, Quill, Drax, and Mantis turn to ash, and there was nothing he could do to stop it. He hated that Peter’s last words were I’m sorry. None of this was his fault. Tony had seen him fight with more courage and loyalty than any normal fifteen-year-old could. And he knew that deep down Peter’s fate at the hands of Thanos was truly on him.

“He’s going to die for that.”

Tony noticed that the only other survivor on Titan was now standing next to him. She was light blue, and the sleeve of her red leather jacket was cut off to show her metal arm. She was holding a sword and wore a deathly serious expression on her face. Then she turned on her heel and began to walk back to the ruins behind them. After a few seconds, he heard her stop.

“Are you coming or what?”

Tony smiled sadly and stood up. They didn’t say anything to each other while they walked through the ruins where they had battled Thanos. The orange haze of Titan made the scorch marks from blasts by himself and Quill look like blood. The poor gravity on Titan allowed smalls chucks of rock to float about an inch off the ground. A few minutes later, they approached a bright orange and blue spaceship.

They made their way to the front of the ship and she sat in the main pilot seat.

“Thanks, um,”

“Nebula.” She flipped a switch and the ship began take-off.

Tony clutched onto the back of a seat with a light blue panel and something that slightly resembled a radio.

“I’m Tony.”

She glanced at him, “I know.” Nebula didn’t say anything else after that for a while.

“We need to head for Earth.”

She wore a slight look of disgust, “What’s on Earth?”

“There’s this group; the Avengers. Yeah, you’re gonna love em. They’ll know what to do.” _Because I sure as hell don’t_. He thought to himself.

She nodded slowly.

“You know, on Earth, there’s this movie about a little blue alien named Stitch. You kind of remind me of him. It’s a whole lesson on family, and he meets this little girl and her older sister, and a bunch of other weirdoes and they aren’t perfect, but they all become family by the end. It’s really cute.”

When she didn’t respond, Tony continued.

“Random thought, but does space have ice cream? I was wondering if that was a universal thing or just an Earth thing. I don’t know why, but it seems like that it would totally be a thing out here I don’t know if it’s just because it’s cold, or… I don’t know. That was weird.”

Nebula simply shrugged. Well, at least he got some sort of reaction out of her.

“You don’t talk much kid. What’s on your mind?”

“My father murdered my sister.” She said it like she had said it inside her head a hundred times. And that hurt.

Tony placed a hand on her shoulder, “Hey… I can only imagen what you’ve gone through, the hell your dad put you through, but you’re gonna be ok.”

She sighed, “I don’t remember the last time I was ‘ok’, and I’m sure it’s not now.”

“It’s probably gonna take a while, but you don’t need to torture yourself, trust me, the world will do enough of that for you.”

Just like how Thanos wiped Peter out of existence. That was torturing the hell out of him. God, that scene just kept replaying itself in his head, when he died. But the worst part was that he didn’t just dust away too.

Nebula looked at him knowingly, “That child… he was your son?”

“No, he’s not my… Well at least not…” He sighed, “He was very important to me, and I felt like it was my job to protect him. And I feel like I failed that.”

“…I’m so sorry.”

He gave a humorless laugh, “Yeah, me too.”

“The wizard wanted you alive, and I think you’re gonna find out that reason soon enough.”

“Yeah, we’ll see about that.” He paused for a minute, then grabbed a sheet of paper laying on the ground and began to fold it, “Hey, have you ever played paper football before?”

She shook her head.

“Alright, put the ship on autopilot. I’m giving you a childhood.”

They probably played for a couple of hours. It was actually the most fun he had been able to have in a long time, plus, this was the first time he had seen her smile. She also started to get really good by the end. Her eyes lit up and she almost couldn’t believe that she had won a game. Well, it was about time she had a win.


	7. Welcome to Wakanda

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> All the remaining Avengers finally meet up in Wakanda, with Steve really reflecting and regretting on how he left things with Tony. Also, Shuri realizes she has to step up and take T'Challa's place and avenge him.

Steve looked out over the field they had previously fought Thanos on. For have recently just been a battlefield, it did not contain much blood, however, the people who died in the battle were reduced to ashes rather than blood. Except for Vision, who Steve had carried back despite the definite fact of being unable to revive him. Thor, Rocket Racoon, Rhodey, Natasha, Bruce, Shuri, Okoye, and himself had survived and went back to Wakanda to discuss a plan. Most everyone was speechless after what had just happened, so everyone decided to keep to themselves for a bit to process what had just happened. Unfortunately, this was starting to go on for a few days.

Steve stood outside the tall palace that resembled a futuristic skyscraper. He jerked around as someone lightly tapped him on the shoulder.

“Woah, easy Cap! It’s just us!” Natasha held up her hands, level with her shoulders, while Bruce smiled and waved shyly from behind her.

A look of relief crossed over Steve’s face. Natasha and Bruce stood on either side of him.

“So, how’s the other guy?” Steve asked Bruce.

Bruce inhaled sharply, “Oh, when the other guy shows his ugly, green face again, I’m going to have some words for him. You can bet most of them will have four letters, and I’m not talking about ‘Hulk’.”

“I think Hulk might be too busy beating the four-letter word out of you before you can even say anything.” Natasha remarked.

Bruce rolled his eyes and Thor laughed from behind them.

Steve turned around, “Wait, how long have you been standing there?”

“Um…” Thor began.

“How enough to make it weird.” Natasha finished, smiling.

Thor grinned, “Look at us! The Avengers are back together again!”

Bruce gasped, “Just like a boy band!”

“Yes! Except friends Tony and Clint are not here.” Thor continued.

“Or Wanda, or Vision, or Sam…” Natasha paused, “Oh, did you mean, like, the original Avengers?”

Thor blushed, “Well, yeah. It’s been awhile.”

Steve lightly laughed at the thought of bring back the original Avengers, after all Tony and himself had put them through.

All the sudden, Shuri, Okoye, and Rocket Racoon ran past them.

“Shuri! What’s wrong?” Steve asked concernedly.

She stopped short, “We got a call from Pepper Potts.” She pointed to a descending aircraft, “There’s about a fifty percent chance that’s them.”

“And what about the other fifty percent?”

Shuri shrugged, “Another threat the universe can throw at us, I guess.”

Natasha pulled an electric baton out from a long pouch behind her back, “Lovely.” She muttered sarcastically.

Shuri, Steve, Natasha, and Bruce sprinted to catch up with Okoye and Rocket. Thor flew overhead and landed in the middle of the clearing in the vast forest. Rhodey joined them in the clearing shortly after. He looked up at the orange and blue ship passing over the trees, aiming to land in the clearing.

“Yeah, so, did I miss something?” He asked. He spent most of his time looking for the others in the forest, even though most of them they hadn’t seen die, the chances that they were still alive were very slim.

“You know, the usual. We’re in the middle of a global crisis and another spaceship is coming down from the sky.” Steve replied.

Okoye shrugged, “Just another day in Wakanda.” She muttered sarcastically.

Thor’s grip strengthened on his ax as the ship touched the ground. The floor of the ship lowered to a ramp, and a light blue woman with a metal arm and Tony Stark emerged from it, meeting the others on the ground.

Thor gasped, “Friend Tony!” He cried as he embraced Tony with a large hug, lifting him off the ground.

“Woah, hey Thor! Just a little too tight. Ah! Ok, you’re suffocating me!” Tony gasped dramatically as Thor put him down.

Tony and Steve locked eyes. Tony’s dark hair was on edge and his current red, gold, and silver suit that Steve did not recognize was sprinkled with scratches and marks. Steve couldn’t quite make out if he was anxious or angry. However, his expression almost looked relived.

“So, are you two gonna keep staring at each until it gets weird?” Rocket asked looking from Steve to Tony.

Tony looked taken aback.

“Yes, the racoon talks. We’ve already established this.” Steve smirked at Tony.

A playful expression flickered across Tony’s face.

“Wow, I mean, you told me you guys weren’t on speaking terms, but I didn’t think it was this bad…” Bruce muttered.

Natasha raised an eyebrow, “What do you mean? Last time they weren’t on ‘speaking terms’, they nearly killed each other.”

“What?!” Thor asked, surprised.

Natasha blinked, “Yeah, Thor. We kind of had this whole ‘Civil War’ going on while you guys were gone.”

“That doesn’t sound very civil at all!” Thor exclaimed.

“Anyways…” Bruce cut in, attempting to answer Natasha’s question from earlier, “I mean that they’re staring at each other and Steve just said something _sarcastic_ to Tony, and it’s really making me uncomfortable.”

“You know what’s making me uncomfortable,” Tony interrupted, “The fact you guys are having this conversation behind our backs, but,” He gestured back and forth from himself and Steve, “_We can hear you_!”

“Fine, you don’t want us to be normal each other? We can be professional.” Steve held out his hand, “Stark.”

Tony shook his hand, “Rogers.”

Tony wore what Steve recognized to be his genuine smile. He was finally confronted with how much he truly missed Tony. They had been the closest of the Avengers. They had respected, trusted, and teased each other constantly, to the point where even Thor couldn’t put up with them any longer. He longed to go back to those times, but Steve quickly dismissed the feeling. Tony and himself had both changed, and he didn’t think they would ever fully be able to get past what they did. The best they could do is focus on the matter at hand and avoid bringing up what happened between them. Suddenly, another ship flew low above them, shaking the leaves in the trees.

Shuri groaned, “Now what?”

Right where Steve assumed was halfway to the new ship, a rustling came from the trees in front of them. Out of the four figures that emerged from the trees, Steve only recognized two of them to be Scott Lang and Pepper Potts. Pepper’s eyes lit up as she saw Tony, and they both ran to embrace each other.

Thor laughed at something Rocket muttered under his breath. A tall, blonde haired woman in a red and blue suit with a gold star with them stared at Steve. There was also a really young girl, maybe fourteen, with dark hair, light brown skin, and a blue suit with a yellow lightning bolt stretching across it.

“Oh my gosh.” The girl breathed, “This is just like Comicon!”

“Hey Scott-,” Steve began.

Scott’s sea green eyes widen excitedly, “Cap! You’re alive!” His excitement morphed into shock, “And you have a beard!”

Steve absentminded touched his chin.

“I’m sorry, it’s just, woah, that wasn’t there last time…” Scott continued.

“Yeah, it looks just like Thor’s beard!” Tony added.

Thor gasped, “That’s exactly what I said!” He exclaimed.

“Oh my gosh, I totally see it now!” Kamala grinned.

“No, it doesn’t.” Steve ended up saying to himself, because no one was listening.

“Don’t you all think that there are more pressing matters at the moment than this guy’s facial hair?” The light-blue woman asked loudly.

Everyone got quiet.

“Well Nebula, if you wanted to brighten up the mood, you could have always just hit someone across the face.” Rocket suggested humorously.

…

“What a perfect time for another one of Brother’s disappearing acts.”

Shuri had found that sarcasm helped with her stress and pain. Things should have worked out. She should have been able to get the flipping stone out of Vision’s head, and the Avengers should have been able to defeat Thanos. However, neither of those things were accomplished.

Maybe things could have been different, if she had gotten the stone out faster and held off the members of Thanos’s army that entered the palace, or if she had helped T'Challa fight. But it was too late for that now. Not to mention things were only going to get more complicated. Her home was vulnerable, and its ruler was deceased.

There had been too much time she had missed with T’Challa. There was nothing she wanted more than to speak with him now, like they did when they were in her lab as T’Challa developed solutions for problems that threatened Wakanda, and she would design and build new devices and suits.

Shuri had brought Okoye to her lab underneath Mount Bashenga as the rest of the Avengers caught up with the events in the last week. Besides, there was some tech she needed.

“So, I’ve been thinking…” She started, scooping up a couple of electromagnetic devices on the stairs that could malfunction engines, and placing them into a bin filled with many more, “I don’t want to make the same mistake I did last time. I’ve been working on this one for a long time, and I need someone to try it on.”

Okoye stepped over an electric staff on the ground.

“If we come across Thanos again, I want you to have this.” Shuri disappeared behind a hovercar she had been working on and a giant pillar.

When Okoye turned the corner, Shuri was standing next to a Black Panther suit worn by a solid white mannequin. The new suit had a similar design to T’Challa’s but many of the features varied. Her’s had neon green lining instead of purple. The mask’s eyes were wider, and had more curved lines than the straight, accurate lines on the original Black Panther suit. The base color was also considerably lighter, almost to a shade of dark grey.

“Tah dah!” She held out her arms in front of it, “Wakanda needs a new defender. I believe you should be the Black Panther.” Shuri finished, lightly brushing the sleeve of the suit.

Okoye took a step towards the suit, smiled, and shook her head, “The Black Panther has always been of royal blood. I fight with my spear for the honor and protection of this nation. However, you are correct, Wakanda needs a new defender. T’Challa has fallen, so another must rise.” Okoye tilted her head towards Shuri, “But, you fail to see that it must be you.”

Shuri was taken aback, “Me? Okoye, you can’t be serious! I can’t be the Black Panther!”

Okoye shrugged, “I’ve seen you fight. You know the way these suits work better than anyone. And given the situation, I don’t see how you have much of a choice.”

Shuri sighed. Okoye was right, for she didn’t need the suit; her fighting skills and values placed her high above any warrior. She felt foolish for thinking that Okoye of all people need its protection. There was nothing she could do to save Vision or change the outcome Thanos had brought on them. It was too late to try to do anything like that now. If she was going to make a difference, she needed to protect the survivors of Wakanda and avenge those they had lost.

Okoye turned to face Shuri, “T’Challa would want you to fight.”

Shuri closed her eyes and nodded. When she opened them again, Okoye smoothly tossed her the suit that had condensed into a necklace.

“Well, let’s see it then.”

Shuri blinked, “You want me to put it on?”

Okoye smiled mischievously.

“Right now? Okoye…”

Okoye turned around, “I’m looking in ten seconds.”

“But,” Shuri sighed as Okoye began counting down, “Okay, fine!”

Shuri fastened the necklace around her neck and the suit grew around her. She traced the neon green lining on her hand as Okoye finished counting down.

“One.” She turned around and smiled, “Good choice.”

Shuri caught a glimpse of her reflection in the glass window. She looked older and more mature, like she could have been in her late twenties. Her hair in a braided bun and the black suit against her dark skin. However, the Shuri that was staring back at her wore an intense look on her face, one that made her look like a fighter. Shuri laughed at her.

“Okoye, I can’t wear this! This is a joke! I’m not like those guys out there.”

“How is this any different?” Okoye asked Shuri in a way that Shuri knew meant she was expecting the answer of a typical teenager.

“It just is!” She replied frustratedly, “I literally feel like I’m in cosplay right now! I couldn’t even get the freaking stone out of Vision’s head! Now I’m supposed to go fighting around in a costume?”

“Shuri, would you quit harassing yourself? You’re more than that. You’re more than a genius, so why don’t you come up with a word for that?”

Shuri blushed, “But, I’m more confident with the ‘tech stuff’, you know?”

“Use that!” Okoye smiled, “Because when you wear that suit, you should be proud. Because that’s all you. You made the suit, you understand it, so now you must use it. Use it to avenge.”

Shuri felt a tight knot growing in her throat. She clasped onto one of the only people left in her life that was still with her. She felt Okoye’s arms shield her, and lightly pat her on the back.

“I miss him too.” She whispered, even though they were the only ones in her lab.

She let out a shaky breath and her shoulders relaxed. Okoye was right, for she had a nation to protect and a brother to avenge. It was time for her to be a fighter. Shuri and Okoye returned to the palace but stopped at the door to the room where Shuri had attempted to save Vision. She closed her eyes and took a deep breath as the door slid open.


	8. To Infinity, and Beyond!

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Avengers are back together and make a plan to bring back their fallen as well as defeat Thanos.

“Okay people, let’s go!” Bruce said loudly to get everyone’s attention.

The Avengers were gathered in the large room within the palace where they had come to help Vision earlier. A large, glass window stretched along the wall, allowing in any sunlight that had managed to escape the grey clouds consuming the sky. Shuri, now wearing a black and neon green suit, and Okoye entered as everyone continued to talk anyways.

Steve smiled, “Nice suit kid.”

Shuri blushed.

“Woah, it looks so cool! It almost looks like vibranium!” Kamala exclaimed.

She laughed, “That’s because it is.”

Kamala gasped, “Shut up! That’s awesome!”

“Thank you.” She grinned.

Okoye placed her hand on her shoulder, “T’Challa would be proud.”

“Hey, uh, guys,” Bruce tried again.

“The bug-boy has it easy.” Rocket complained, “He can kill somebody by shrinking really small, climbing up their ass, then growing big again! Lucky!”

“Um…” Scott trailed off uncomfortably, “I don’t, I don’t think it works like that.”

Rocket raised an eyebrow at him, “Well, how does it work?”

“Guys.” Bruce said impatiently.

“I’m going to give Clint a really hard time when this is over.” Tony smirked.

“Oh my gosh!” Bruce cried, “Can we all just shut up and deal with the ‘Mad Titan’ problem?”

The room was dead silent for a moment.

“Woah Banner, no need to go all ‘Hulk’ on everybody! You could have just said something.” Thor grinned.

“What?!” Bruce started, then realized what Thor was trying do, so he sighed and rolled his eyes.

“Kidding.” Thor laughed.

“Seriously, does anyone have a plan?” Bruce asked.

“My Pap-Pap always said the best way to get something done is to make a list, so we should do that.” Scott started, “Step one: Make a plan,”

“Wow! Genius!” Tony interrupted sarcastically.

“Step Two: Fight Thanos. Step Three: Show him no mercy and let him die a slow and painful death.” Scott continued.

Rocket laughed manically, “Step Three is my favorite!”

Rhodey looked unconvinced, “That’s… dark. Especially for you.”

“Um, Scott…?” Steve began.

“Do you want me to start over? I’ll start over.”

“Wait.” Kamala started, “I still don’t get how Thanos got all the stones on his glove, used them all at the same time, and didn’t, you know,”

“Go down in flames like the last two Shrek movies?” Rhodey finished.

She grinned, “Yeah!”

Thor spoke up, “He did. At least, his gauntlet did.”

“The gauntlet’s destroyed? That’s good, right?” Scott asked hopefully.

Thor shook his head sadly, “The Infinity Stones are still very much intact.”

“Thanos would be psychotic if he tried to use them know. He’d kill himself. No one can sustain that much power. That shouldn’t have been possible, even with the gauntlet.” Bruce tried to reassure Thor.

“Oh! The Mad Titan nickname makes sense now!” Scott exclaimed, “I thought he was just, I don’t know, really angry all the time.”

“What if we force him to undo it?” Natasha suggested.

“Thanos has made it his soul mission to wipe out half the universe, and he even willing murdered his favorite daughter to do it. He won’t allow it to be undone. Besides, he can manipulate reality to whatever he wishes it to be.” Nebula explained, her teeth gritted when she said his name.

“So, if Thanos has screwed up this reality, hypothetically, we could go back in time, get the stones before him, come back and just undo it ourselves.” The tall blonde woman, probably from space, stated.

“And, who are you?” Tony asked with an edge of suspicion in his voice.

Her eyes narrowed daringly, “Carol Danvers.”

“First of all, we can’t just go back in time.”

“Sure we can.” Scott cut in, “We could use the time vortexes in the quantum realm!”

“Do you have any idea where the vortexes would even put you?” Tony questioned.

“I could trace their past sources and predict where the next ones would end up!” Shuri suggested excitedly.

Scott grinned at her, “All we need then is a quantum portal! Easy!”

“That might just be insane enough to actually work!” Bruce exclaimed, turning to Tony, who appeared to be considering it.

“Ok. I’m going to run back to the U.S. real quick.”

“You’ve got to be kidding me.” Natasha rolled her eyes as Steve frowned.

Tony wore a smile that lead Bruce to believe he had something else in mind, “Nope. Just going to grab some things. Hey Pepper, why don’t you come too?”

Pepper must have known his look too, “Oh, um, sure.”

Shuri bit her lip as Tony and Pepper left.

Finally, she sighed, “For the love of… just take my jet, it’s faster.”

Tony looked hesitant for a moment, “I think we’ll just take the S.H.I.E.L.D jet. It might get a little choppy.”

Steve rolled his eyes, “Care to tell anyone what you’re doing?”

He slyly smiled, “Nope. It’s a surprise. BRB.” He disappeared out the door and down the hall.

Pepper sighed and followed him out.

Right before she left, she turned towards the others, “If I don’t make it, put my gravestone a good fifty miles away from _his_.” She gestured out the door.

Steve grinned and Bruce rolled his eyes.

Carol playfully nudged Shuri on her side, “Kid’s gotta have her own jet.” And Shuri laughed.

“Everyone who thinks he’s up to something say ‘Aye’.” Rhodey said when Pepper and Tony were out of earshot.

“Aye!” Everyone shouted.

Thor grinned, “He’s even worse at trying to hide that sort of thing than Loki!”

Bruce raised an eyebrow, “Then you and I remember New York very differently.”

“Well Cap.” Scott put his hand on Steve’s shoulder and his other on Carol’s, “And, uh, Cap. What’s next?”

Steve grinned, “Shuri, Scott, Bruce, you guys start working on the quantum portal.”

“The soul stone is connected with quantum energy; Thanos might sense your presence once you are inside the quantum realm.” Thor explained.

“Then I’ll take a team and slap the snot out of him until you guys are done.” Carol said determinedly.

Carol Danvers, also known as Captain Marvel, was going to be part of the Avengers program too. Or so Tony had told him when he had accessed S.H.I.E.L.D’s data. However, he wondered if this was a good enough reason to trust her. Where had she been all this time? Bruce had always had a feeling that the only reason S.H.I.E.L.D had made him an Avenger was to get the Hulk on their side, for he was too dangerous of an opponent. Perhaps she had a similar condition.

“Well, what are we waiting for?” Shuri exclaimed enthusiastically.

“Oh! I almost forgot.” Bruce handed Thor a small, black smartphone, “I think it’s about time you have one of these to contact us.”

Thor carefully took the phone and held it up, confused, “What is this?” He pushed down the home button, accidently activating Siri.

“Hello.” Siri’s monotone voice came over the phone.

“Grah!” Thor cried, nearly dropping it, “From what dark dimension have you come from?”

“I do not know what you mean by, ‘From what dark dimension have you come from,’ but I can search the web for it.”

“From. What. Dark. Dimension. Have. You. Come. From.” Thor repeated slowly.

“I’m not sure I understand.”

Bruce rolled his eyes, “Siri is a useless function. She’s a knock off version of J.A.R.V.I.S. She can’t do anything besides search the web. There isn’t any instance in which you would need to use her.”

“That’s not nice.” Siri replied monotony.

Thor laughed.

Rhodey smiled mischievously, “Hey Siri, call me War Machine.”

“From now on, I will call you ‘War Machine’?”

“Yes.” Rhodey confirmed.

“What?” Thor cried, “No! Sorcery!”

“Thor, are you even paying attention?” Bruce asked, slightly flustered.

“Wait Banner! I must change it back!” Thor tapped Siri’s icon, “Voice lady from the unknown dimension, I am Thor Odinson. I command you to refer to me by my true identity!”

“I’m not sure I understand, War Machine.”

“For the love of…” Bruce tapped Thor’s phone, “Call me Thor.”

“From now on, I will call you ‘Thor’?”

“No.” Thor denied.

“What?” Bruce asked in disbelief.

Natasha rolled her eyes and Steve shook his head, grinning.

“Call me, Strongest Avenger.”

“From now on, I will call you ‘Mommy Revenger’?”

Scott laughed, and Okoye smiled, facepalming.

“No! Where did you even get ‘Mommy’ from?” Thor demanded, annoyed.

“This is why we don’t use Siri! Not even the most technological genius can work around her stupidity!” Bruce exclaimed.

“Hey Siri. Call me, Strongest Avenger.” Steve tried.

“From now on, I will call you ‘Strongest Avenger’?”

“Yes.” Steve confirmed.

“Ok, Strongest Avenger.”

Everyone sighed with relief.

“Thank God that’s over.” Bruce sighed, “Ok Thor. Hopefully, you’ll only have to call or text people.”

“Can I E-Mail people?” Thor asked enthusiastically.

Bruce looked confused, “Technical, sure. But why?”

“Because,” Thor started, “If I have an E-Mail, then the time-traveling doctor will not have to kidnap my brother. He can just E-Mail me in advance!”

“Let’s all just pretend that that made sense.” Rhodey remarked.

After they finished showing Thor how to use his phone, Bruce and Scott followed Shuri outside the palace to her lab.

“I always loved studying quantum energy. It’s so interesting and unknown!” Shuri gushed.

Scott grinned, “I know right? It’s really pretty down there.”

“Shut up! You’ve been down there before?” Shuri asked excitedly.

Scott blushed, “Yeah.”

Shuri and Scott continued to talk about the quantum realm as Bruce felt a hand lock down on his shoulder. He turned around and saw Natasha wearing a small smile.

“Oh, uh, hey.” Bruce waved shyly.

“Hey yourself.” Natasha returned.

There was silence between them for a moment and Bruce could hear that Shuri and Scott were now talking about Doctor Who.

“Thor told me what happened to you.” Natasha started.

“Oh, he… did?”

She nodded, then smirked, “I suppose you two have had quite the development.”

“What? Nat… I…” Bruce squirmed in his words, his cheeks flushing.

“I mean, what’s not to like? He’s tall, dreamy, adorable, funny, protective, did I mention adorable?”

“Alright, alright! You can stop now.” He couldn’t help but smile playfully. But that only reminded him of how much _their _relationship had changed, “So… are _we_ good?”

Natasha shrugged, “Yeah, I mean, I like to think so. I don’t know about you, but I just don’t know if the romantic relationship was really for us. I think we were closer than most friends are, and of course I still love and care about you, but I just don’t think we’re exactly a romantic pairing if you know what I mean.”

Bruce sighed with relief, for he felt the exact same way, “Yeah, yeah I do. So… platonically more than friends?”

Natasha cheeks turned a light shade of pink, and she grinned, “I’d like that.” Followed by someone saying, “Aww.”

They both turned to find Scott and Shuri faced towards them.

“Oops! Sorry! I ruined the moment, didn’t I?” Scott looked embarrassed.

Natasha and Bruce nodded. There was a moment of awkward silence.

“You know, it’s cool. Deep down don’t we all have a crush on Thor?” Scott grinned, “I mean, personally, I’m a little more of a Captain America guy, but Thor’s pretty great too.”

Shuri shrugged, “I’m Lesbian, I wouldn’t know.”

“Oh, that’s cool man! I think both are attractive, so I guess technically that means I’m bisexual.”

Bruce pressed his hand to his forehead, “Were you guys listening to the entire conversation? I thought you were talking about Doctor Who.”

“We were. And then… we decided listening to your conversation was more interesting.” Shuri replied.

Natasha shook her head grinning while Bruce attempted to change the subject.

“Has anything every gone extremely wrong when you’ve opened a portal to the quantum realm before?” Bruce asked Scott.

He shook his head, “No, things have actually gone pretty smoothly whenever we open the…” He paused, “Actually, no. That’s a lie.”

Bruce raised his brow and a concerned look crossed over his face.

“Not with anything like that though! The portals have always worked fine. It just feels kind of jinxed sometimes, like whenever we do it the FBI shows up, someone tries to kill us, someone tries to steal the portal, Thanos wipes out half the universe, you get the idea.” Scott froze.

“What is it?” Shuri asked concernedly.

Scott hesitated, “There’s something you guys should probably know.”


	9. Project Rescue

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Tony and Pepper go back to Avengers compound and discuss Project Rescue.

“Tony, do you want to tell me what you’re up to?”

Tony glanced at Pepper and smirked, “Maybe. Do you want to tell me how long you’ve been working with S.H.I.E.L.D?”

She had forgotten to take off her S.H.I.E.L.D pin when she, Carol, Kamala, and Scott had previously gotten off the aircraft. It now reflected the faint light of the sun breaking out of the clouds. They passed over the thick, tropical forest of Wakanda. She sighed.

“Look, it wasn’t that I didn’t trust you or anything.”

He smiled sadly, “I know.”

There was silence for a moment. Pepper glanced at him and sighed.

“After Sokovia, Fury thought it might be a good idea to try to bring S.H.I.E.L.D back. So, I agreed to help because I didn’t want to see you guys get yourselves killed if something else like Ultron happened again.” She paused, “I guess that doesn’t matter now. Anyways, for legal reasons, we couldn’t get as involved as before or else we’d get caught. So, yeah.”

A worried, anxious look settled on Tony’s face, “Pepper, working with like that S.H.I.E.L.D is extremely dangerous, and probably illegal.”

An anger rose up inside Pepper despite the current situation, “No. Don’t talk about ‘extreme danger’ with me! You certainly weren’t considering the ‘extreme danger’ when you climbed onboard that ship!”

“And people would have died if I didn’t!” Tony countered loudly.

“Tony! People died anyway, if you hadn’t noticed!” Pepper realized she had gone too far when Tony looked at her with a brutally hurt expression that she had never seen on him before.

He opened his mouth as if he was going to say something, then sighed. He turned to fully face forward on the open sky.

“You think I don’t know that.” He said quietly, looking out at the sky, “I’ve spent the past two years waking up paranoid every day, trying to decide if everyone I care about is dead or if that’s just anxiety talking. The more people I care about, the more people who are in danger and maybe if I give everything to protect them, it won’t be enough. And it wasn’t.” He paused, “I lost a team, I lost a kid, and I can’t lose you too.”

Pepper reached into her jacket pocket. She felt the thin cloth between her fingertips. She remembered people panicking and fleeing as the ship flew above Central Park. She squinted as something red and delicate fluttered in the wind. She recognized the design and caught it as it began to drift towards a nearby pond.

Pepper now pulled the mask out of her pocket. The large white eyes and black web pattern looked back. The original Spider-Man mask, and most likely the only remain of Peter that hadn’t disintegrated. She carefully slid the mask into Tony’s hand. Tony glanced down at it and a sad smile broke through the hurt in his expression. He clutched Peter’s mask in his right hand and held it up to his chest. Pepper placed her hand on his shoulder and gently squeezed it. She felt the tension in his shoulders lessen. Neither of them said anything for the rest of the ride to America.

* * *

Tony landed the S.H.I.E.L.D aircraft on the roof of the Avengers facility in upstate New York. The inside of the facility was eerie quiet and felt empty, as if all the soul and personality had been drained from each room. Even his own lab felt only vaguely familiar. He grabbed a black leather briefcase and began to pack essential items and data in it. He inserted a shiny red and black flash drive into the USB port of the lab’s central computer.

Pepper raised an eyebrow, “Are you putting all the Avengers and Iron-Man data on one flash drive?”

Tony shrugged, “I couldn’t find one with enough storage. So, I made one.”

Pepper laughed, “Of course you did.”

Tony noticed a small, blue file, conspicuous against the other beige and gray files in a neat stack under a large desk. He couldn’t hide his knowing smile as he reached for it.

“I guess this got pretty beat-up on Titan. But thanks to nanotech, it shouldn’t take too long to fix.” He gestured to his suit.

He checked the computer, which was still uploading the files to his flash drive. Tony passed the paper file across the desk to Pepper.

“Hey, we never finished Project Rescue, did we?”

Pepper’s eyes widened, “Tony… Not now.”

Tony shrugged, “Why not?”

“Because this is the most dramatic global crisis in history! Because this is literally the worst time for me to try out that suit!”

Tony grabbed her shoulders, “Pepper, it would take a miracle for it not to be necessary for you to put it on. I thought I could keep you safe, but now that Thanos has annihilated us, I know that I can’t. Strange should have kept the time stone and let me die,”

“Tony, don’t say that!” Pepper cried, grasping onto to him as if he could fade away from reality any second, “I, I wish you would quit throwing your life into the line of death! There are people who care about you! _I _care about you!”

He closed his eyes and wrapped his arms around her, “I care about you too, which is why I need you to promise me you’ll put on the suit.”

There was silence for a moment before she sighed, “Fine, but I need you to promise me you’re not going to die.”

“I can’t…” He said slowly.

Pepper let go of him and carefully picked up the file.

“I need you to promise,” She insisted, “If you die, then that’s on me.”

“Why on Earth would it be on you?”

“Because I supported you, but I don’t want Thanos to have an opportunity to kill you again.”

“I’m not going to let him,” Tony assured her, “I’m not letting him lay so much as a finger on anyone else ever again.”

The computer let out a low hum as it finished uploading to the flash drive.


	10. Here's the Plan

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Bruce finds out about what happened to Scott and Carol in the quantum realm and about Scott's quantum entanglement and is *concerned*, so Shuri and Scott have to talk him into activating the portal. Then, the Avengers come up with a plan to SAVE THE FRICKING UNIVERSE! (Sorry if you hadn't noticed by now but I'm energetic and bad at summaries)

“Scott! This is serious!” Bruce exclaimed as Scott brushed past him.

He shrugged, “I mean, sure, but I’m sure it’ll work out.”

Bruce stared at him in utter disbelief. He had been trying to convince Scott that he had completely lost his mind all the way to Shuri’s lab after he had told them what had happened to himself and Carol in the quantum realm. Not to mention he had previously been involved in quantum entanglement. Shuri and Scott had begun to gather materials to build the quantum portal as Bruce continued trying to reason.

“Do you have any idea how damaging an active quantum entanglement can be to your neural system?” Bruce asked concernedly.

“Probably not.” Scott replied casually, “I don’t fully understand what’s happening to me, but it hasn’t killed me yet!”

Bruce groaned, “Can you _try _to take this seriously for even five minutes?” But Scott had stopped listening to him, “Fine! Don’t listen to me! Shuri! Can you tell this idiot that he is going to kill himself?”

“Yeah, sure. That’s cool…” Shuri trailed off, clearly pretending to listen, “Hey Scott! Can you help me move this?”

Shuri and Scott each took a side of the large piece and carried it to the other side of the lab, Bruce stepping away to avoid being hit by it. If she wasn’t going to help him, he didn’t have many more options to choose from besides to keep trying.

“It seems unlikely that you and Carol could have just hallucinated seeing Stephen Strange in there, but your quantum entanglement with Janet Van Dyne is very much real. She has access to all your thoughts and memories. She could probably possess you if she wanted to.”

He shuddered a little at this, “Well…” He continued to try to be optimistic, “I trust Janet. She hasn’t possessed me or anything. That would be really weird and I’m sure Hope and Hank wouldn’t let me hear the end of it.”

“You wouldn’t be conscious or able to remember being possessed if it happened…” Bruce shook his head, “But that’s not the point!”

“None of that could even possibly happen unless we open the portal.” Shuri cut him off.

“That’s what I’ve been trying to say this whole time!” Bruce cried.

“And we need to open the portal if we’re ever going to fix this!” Scott exclaimed.

“Fine.” Bruce sighed, “How would you like to slowly sink into insanity, losing touch with all reality, and then suffering a brutally painful death?”

Shuri stopped and looked up as a little bit of life from Scott’s expression faded away. Something about it haunted Bruce, for he wasn’t sure if Scott was too overwhelmed to know what to think, or if he truly didn’t care what happened to him.

He sighed, “Scott. We can’t lose anybody else.”

“If this works, then it’ll be worth it.” Scott assured him.

Shuri laughed, “Don’t think for a minute I’d let you die like that. Saving people’s lives is like a part time job for me now.”

Bruce smiled, “Kid, you have no idea.”

“So…” Scott started, “Are you on board now?”

He sighed, “Fine.”

As it turned out, he really enjoyed working with the two, especially Shuri. Despite her age, she knew more about quantum physics than Tony knew about impressing the public.

* * *

Months later, they were ready.

A lot had happened since then. Everyone had contributed in the construction of the portal. It took about a month just to come up with the insane network of plan they had for getting back the stones. Then there was all the trial and error work, which Scott didn’t end up getting hurt in the process, so that was a plus. Nebula agreed to do a test run and went back in time to the early 2000’s for them a second and for her an hour. She came back with victory cotton candy and a Stich plush, so one can only imagen what had happened.

Wakanda had been maintained by both Shuri and her mother, not to mention how close she and Kamala had grown. Carol, Thor, Rocket, and Nebula had practically searched the entire galaxy for Thanos and Natasha had searched for Clint. Unfortunately, no luck. But Natasha wasn’t one to give up.

Plus, Steve had _finally_ shaved his beard and Carol had cut her already short hair even shorter.

While Natasha had nagged him for months to tell Thor what he was feeling, Bruce didn’t have the courage at the moment, nor did he want to make things awkward while they saved half the universe. It didn’t feel appropriate right now and besides, he had all the time after to tell him after they defeated Thanos and brought everyone back. Because now, he truly believed they could do it.

“Alright, here’s the plan.” Steve grinned, going over it one last time, “We have an opening in the time vortexes for a chance at getting each infinity stone, but we only shot at this. Carol, we need you to keep Thanos busy because he’ll be able to trace us will the soul stone unless you stop him.”

Carol nodded and put her arm around Kamala, “Ok, but… I get one carry-on.”

Kamala’s eyes widened, “Really? Are you serious?” Carol smiled, “Woah… Bruno’s never gonna believe me…”

“Thor, you’ll go after the space stone.”

“My calculations say that the vortex will put you on the Asgardian ship, roughly 14 million miles away from Earth this year.” Shuri commented.

Bruce gasped, “But that’s right before Thanos took the stone!”

Thor flashed a daring smile, “Then I’ll just have to hurry. Plus, I have the voice lady from the dark dimension on my side!”

Tony looked as if he was going to say something, but Rhodey held up his hand, “It’s probably best if you don’t ask.”

“Rhodey and Bruce, you’ve got the reality stone.” Steve continued, “Shuri and Nebula, you’ll get the time stone.”

“The reality stone should,” Shuri glanced at Rocket, “Be in a museum in Knowhere. 2013.”

Rocket shrugged, “First of all, yes, Knowhere is the name of the place. And second of all, the museum belongs to the Collector, so be careful.”

“Why? Who’s the Collector?” Bruce asked curiously.

“He dehumanizes unique creatures and individuals by treating them as property and putting them on display in his museum.” Nebula explained matter of factly.

“Lovely.” Rhodey replied sarcastically.

“Rocket, Pepper, and Okoye, you’ll go for the power stone.”

“The power stone is on a planet called Xander-,” Shuri continued.

“With Nova Corps. 2014.” Rocket finished, grinning.

“Tony and Scott, you’re with me. The mind stone was in Loki’s staff during the battle of New York.” Steve finished.

Scott nodded while Tony smirked at them.

Shuri gave each of them a small, circular device attached to a black wristband, “These will be able to withstand the power of the infinity stones, so when you find them, they’ll go in here. This is also your tether back home. You turn the silver disc to activate it.”

“Are we forgetting anything Scott, Carol?” Steve turned to a confused Scott.

“What do you mean?”

Tony rolled his eyes, “You and Carol missed the whole shebang because you were in the quantum realm and that’s where we’re going now, so,”

“Oh yeah!” He looked at Carol who shrugged and continued, “Well, uh, there are these adorable, orange, worm-looking things, but they’ll try to eat you, so you should probably watch out for those. And if things get dead silent and start to look like the inside of a kaleidoscope, that means you’ve gone too far in it and you’re lost forever or something.”

“Is it weird that that makes me even more excited to do this?” Rocket asked, grinning.

Scott shrugged, “Yeah, maybe a little bit.”

“The location of the soul stone is still unknown, but we’ll be able to track it with other one of the infinity stones when we get back. Steve, Tony, Scott, you’re first.” Shuri announced.

Pepper hugged Tony goodbye, and Thor grinned at all of them, “Best of luck to you, Man of Iron, Captain of America, and man who is part ant!”

“Uh, I’m not part ant. Or at least time I checked.” Scott stated.

“Oh.” Thor paused, “Well, perhaps you were infused with an ant serum.”

Bruce shook his head, “Nope. His powers come from his suit. And being infused with serum is what happened to Steve.”

“Well, are you sure he wasn’t bitten by a radioactive ant?” Thor continued.

“Just stop.” Rhodey tapped him on the shoulder.

“Bye Thor! We’ll bring some shawarma back for you and Bruce! And Tasha when she gets back!” Tony smiled.

Tony, Steve, and Scott stood at the mouth of the portal, and then disappeared into a bright, orange light.


	11. Natasha finds Ninja Archer

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Natasha searches for Clint, but runs into a bit of trouble on the way. She doesn't quite expect what she finds.

Natasha opened her eyes. A small gasp escaped her. She leapt onto her feet and whipped around to find a short man with black, clean shaved cut hair behind her. He wore a marron robe and a yellow belt. His brow furrowed above his dark, crescent shaped eyes. Nearly a moment ago, she had been aboard a quinjet when a soft orange light flickered around her feet. She fell through the floor and landed on a rainy street. She didn’t know who this man was or what kind of powers his possessed, but she planned to get some answers. Natasha kicked him in the side, but he swiftly blocked her. Then he karate chopped her in the side, but she quickly recovered from the blow by grabbing his arm and twisting it behind his back. He skillfully kicked her in the shin, forcing her to let go. He had clearly had combat experience. Natasha went low and swung her leg around, tripping him, and then pinning him to the ground.

“Who are you?” Natasha questioned fiercely.

“I’ll may only revel that to those who are willing to listen.” He replied.

The same orange light from earlier surrounded them, and they landed hard on the pavement of a similar street. As he rose to a combat-ready position, orange glowing discs formed at the palms of his hands, and rainwater ran down his face. Natasha leapt up and punched him, but he held up his glowing discs to block her. He attempted to hit her, but she swiftly dodged away, grabbed his shoulders, and jerked him towards her, jabbing him with her knee. He was taken aback for a moment before disappearing through the orange light that resembled a portal. He punched Natasha hard and unexpectedly in the back. She faked falling to the ground, and as he approached, she pushed herself off the ground by her shoulders, kicking him in the chest and pushing him backwards. As she landed, her hand trailing in front of her as she slid backwards on the wet pavement, her left hand clasped on one of her batons. The man came at her, discs glowing, and both of Natasha’s batons met his wrists, intersecting to make a ‘X’ shape. Finally, Natasha pulled a roundhouse kick on him, the water spraying off the tips of her hair as she whipped around. He lay on his back, but she pinned him down before he could counter again, holding a baton up to his neck.

“Who are you?” She repeated firmly.

“I told you! You must be willing to listen!” He exclaimed.

“Are you going to cut it out with vague comments and talk, or am I going to have to make you?”

“You don’t understand,” He sighed, “You may be the most intimidating Avenger, but sometimes you fail to find answers to the bigger picture when you are interrogating someone, trying to make them confess to such a narrow accusation. That is why I brought you here.” He shrugged, “Was that helpful?”

“No.” Natasha replied bitterly.

“Exactly. Regardless if that was helpful to you or not, I still confessed that I brought you here and why.” He smiled, “But I do not believe that will bring you much farther in your investigation.”

“Are you saying there’s something I’m missing?”

He blinked, “Yes, that is quite frankly, exactly what I am saying.”

“Sure would have saved a lot of time.” Natasha muttered.

He sighed, “Sadly, time is no longer on our side.”

The silence was quickly broken between them, “Are you willing to listen?”

Natasha rolled her eyes, “Fine, Wizard.”

“Wong.” He nodded his head.

Natasha stood, releasing Wong. He turned his arm in a quick circular motion, and the same orange portal opened in front of them. He stepped through, most likely noticing her hesitant expression, for he smiled warmly. Natasha quickly ran through it in case the portal would suddenly close. They appeared to be on the same street as before, the rain now reduced to a drizzle. The lights of local shops twinkled under the cover of raindrops. The signs in the windows were written in Japanese.

“How far have you gotten?” Wong asked Natasha curiously.

“You’ve used some sort of magic to bring us to Japan. I’m going to assume mystic arts.”

Wong nodded.

“But you’re not from here. You knew about me being an Avenger, you’re English is incredibly fluent, and I haven’t seen you in any sort of foreign government database, so you’re most likely from the Americas…” She continued, “You must have had some sort of interaction with another Avenger to become aware of our whereabouts. Let’s say Tony and/or Bruce, because they were the first two Avengers to make contact with Thanos’s ship, they weren’t with us until after we were in the midst of the Thanos threat, and Thor was in space. The prefect opportunity for you to reveal yourself without drawing suspicion or distress would be when we were, more or less, separated. However,” she paused, “I still haven’t got why it was me.”

Wong looked up at her, “You’ve been missing a teammate for quite some time now. You might be the only one who may still be able to get to him.”

They turned a corner and the street grew a little darker. Natasha stiffened. A hooded figure stood at the end of the street, his back turned to them, wielding a sword. His hood was black with gold lining. He sharpened the sword on his sleeve, and finished the man standing in front of him. The man fell to his feet. The slick weapon hung by his side; his hand clutched tightly on it. Natasha felt dread rising up inside of her as it all made sense, but she wasn’t ready to believe it.

“Clint?”

The figure pulled off his hood and a mess of choppy brown hair spilled out as he slowly turned around. Clint’s face looked troubled and his light brown eyes filled with regret.


	12. Welcome to New York (the offical soundtrack of this chapter)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Tony, Steve, and Scott are in 2012 during the Battle of New York and trying to get the mind stone in all the chaos.

“Welcome to New York.”

Tony nudged Steve as they overlooked the chaotic, raging fight. Scott appeared beside them, the scene reflecting on his silver helmet.

“Wow. This isn’t anything like San Fransico.”

Tony glanced sideways at him, grinning, “We like to blame the tourists.” He gestured to the mob of Chitauri on the streets.

Scott’s helmet appeared to retract into his suit.

“Ok. What’s the plan? Are we just going to rush in blindly and take on a bunch of those guys or…?” Scott trailed off.

“That’s my specialty.” Tony grinned mischievously.

Steve rolled his eyes, “Which is exactly why we’re not doing that.” He pointed toward to the tower off in the distance that would one day become Avengers Tower, “That’s where they’re coming from. Loki was there for most of the fight taking on Thor and Hulk. We need to get there as inconspicuously as possible, because even though this shouldn’t affect the future in our reality that Thanos destroyed, it might not be the best time to break it to the newly formed Avengers that half of everyone ceases to exist in the future. The Chitauri are everywhere, so when you come across them try to lure them away from the scene and then take them out. When we get to the tower, we’ll have to work together to take down Loki. Tony, you’ll have to get the mind stone out of his staff because you’re the only one here who it can’t affect.”

“Race you there!” Tony took off flying down to the scene and took cover behind a convenience store at the end of the street. About a minute later, Steve ran up behind him, grasping his shoulder.

“You. Are a madman.” He said in a hushed voice, shaking his head in disbelief.

“Why thank you. I’m flattered.” Tony countered sarcastically.

Steve rolled his eyes, “Did I not make it obvious enough that this is a stealth mission?”

“I think that a flying in a weaponized suit is rather inconspicuous at the moment given the, um, circumstances. Speaking of stealth, where’s your little buddy?”

Going back and forth with Steve reminded him of their friendship before they turned against each other. Though he would never admit it, every time he believed they would be able to move past it, he reminded himself that Steve lied to him to keep himself from clinging onto a pointless hope. They hadn’t been on speaking terms for two years, and he had a feeling that Steve was solely focusing on reversing the decimation to avoid conflict, and to prevent worrying the others. Tony figured that they should both push back any hard feelings and save the world. They both had people to avenge. That was something they still had in common and it was a start.

“Scott’s right behind…” Steve trailed off looking behind him, “Ok. He clearly got the stealth memo.”

Tony smirked, “I still can’t believe you recruited him and were like, ‘Oh yeah, this is the guy who’s gonna guarantee me a win baby!’”

Steve eyes narrowed, and he grinned, “Says the guy who recruited a minor. And I think you’re forgetting how Scott nearly crushed you and destroyed you suit.”

“And I think you’re forgetting how Peter stole your shield.” Tony countered, “Plus, Scott can be, um, a little unfocused at times.”

“In terms of determination and heart, Scott is very respectable-,” Steve was cut off as Scott appeared at his normal height next to him.

He was cradling an ant the size of an infant, “Oh my gosh! Guys! Look at how flipping adorable he is! I’m going to call him Baby Ant-Thony!” He held Baby Ant-Thony up in the air, much like how Rafiki held up Simba in _Lion King_, “You shall avenge the actual Ant-Thony!”

Tony shot a look at Steve that read, ‘see what I mean?’, but Steve simply rolled his eyes at him.

Baby Antony wiggled free and crawled down Scott’s arm, latching onto his back. He looked like a child’s backpack.

Scott gasped, “Be right back!” He ran around the side of the convenience store and shrank.

“If we’re done comparing teammates, I’m going to clear the perimeter.” Steve revealed the triangular, vibrainium shield attached to his forearm.

“Steve,” Tony started as he turned the corner, “I’m sorry. I’m sorry for a lot of things.”

He looked back wearing a sad smile, “Yeah. Me too.”

A Chitauri warrior came charging at them from the other side of the building. Tony blasted him in the chest and noticed Steve was still staring at him.

“Oh, I’m sorry.” Tony began sarcastically, “Was that too _conspicuous_ for you?”

He smiled and shook his head. They both turned the corner as Steve ran his shield along the brick wall, creating an ear-splitting sound. They stood on either side of the gap between the two buildings as the Chitauri came down it to confirm would had made the noise. Then Tony ambushed them with repulsor blasts as Steve sliced at them with his shield. As they approached the street, they were faced with a few more Chitauri warriors who they took out by reflecting Tony’s blasts off Steve’s shield. However, the street appeared to be empty.

“That’s weird. There should be more of them.” Steve looked around suspiciously.

Tony shrugged, “Maybe Loki’s even more stupid than the first time. But it doesn’t seem like him to have such a small defense.”

“Um, Tony?” Steve pointed at the ground.

He looked down to find a troop of miniature Chitauri warriors scurrying around like ants, “What the heck?”

A normal sized Chitauri came charging out of a nearby alleyway, but Scott grew in midair in front of him, kicking him with such force in the chest that knocked the Chitauri to the ground. He tried to sit up, but Scott punched him across the face, knocking the wind out of him. Many other Chitauri warriors lay unconscious in the area surrounding the alleyway. Baby Ant-Thony scurried around Scott’s combat boots, then ran over to Steve and Tony.

“Hey guys!” Scott exclaimed cheerfully.

“I can’t say I’m not impressed.” Tony picked up one of the squirming, miniature Chitauri warriors, “How the heck did you do this?”

“I had some spare Pym Particle discs, and I think I figured out how to convert them too! I have a ton of them that make stuff bigger, but I’m running low on the ones that make stuff smaller.”

“I guess you held down the fort on your own. You barely left any for Steve and I!” Tony grinned playfully.

Scott’s helmet disappeared to reveal him blushing, “Yeah, well, I didn’t want to interrupt your ‘bonding moment’ and,” He suddenly gasped, “Baby Ant-Thony! No!”

Baby Ant-Thony was now eating the miniature Chitauri warriors attempting to flee. Scott scooped him up and cradled him.

“I raised you better than that!”

Tony shook his head and groaned, “That’s so weird on so many levels.”

Scott grinned mischievously.

“Scott, what ‘bonding moment’?” Steve asked curiously.

Tony looked at him in disbelief, “That’s what’s bothering you about all this?”

“What? Oh yeah!” Scott exclaimed, “Well, you guys were talking about life stuff, so, yeah…” He trailed off uncomfortably from the awkward silence, “I was also blushing, like, _really_ hard when Cap said that stuff about me, so, yeah…” He trailed off uncomfortably again then sighed, “I just ruined the moment again, didn’t I?”

All the sudden, a blast of lighting struck above them, hitting a large, snake-like creature in the sky.

“We have to hurry if we’re going to get the mind stone in time. We only have one shot at this.” Steve took off towards the tower, Tony flying above him, in line with the buildings to avoid being spotted, and Scott right behind him, carrying Baby Ant-Thony under his arm.

They were mere yards away from the tower when out of the corner of his eye, Tony saw a familiar crop of red hair. He abruptly landed, grabbing both Steve and Scott by their arms.

“Tony, what,” Steve started, but must have saw his anxious expression and her too, “Crap.”

The three of them ducked behind a beaten-up, tan minivan. The rearview mirror had been detached from the vehicle and lay on the ground beside it. Scott pushed it near the edge of the tire, adjusting it so they could see what was going on behind them, but so it couldn’t be seen from anyone on the other side of the van. Natasha appeared to be rolling her eyes at a remark of Clint’s. They were fighting Chitauri on the rooftop, but Natasha graceful landed, Clint following her. She held up her hand.

“Get ready. We’re not alone.”

Steve gestured from Scott to the tower, but Scott shook his head. _I’m not leaving you guys _he mouthed. Baby Ant-Thony began to squirm, especially when a miniature Chitauri warrior was blown over by an explosion. An idea struck Tony. He grabbed the miniature Chitauri warrior and Baby Ant-Thony. Scott attempted to protest, but quickly put a hand over his own mouth. Tony smoothly tossed the miniature Chitauri warrior under the van and let Baby Ant-Thony go around the side of it.

“What the heck is that?” Clint exclaimed, aiming an arrow at him.

Scott placed his other hand other his mouth as well.

“He’s kind of cute, in a way.” Natasha shrugged.

Clint glanced at her playfully, “You are so weird.”

Seizing the opportunity, Tony ducked behind the car parked a few feet in front of the minivan. He glanced to his side, and noticed Steve was right next to him. He pointed to his shoulder where a miniature Scott was perched, waving at him. Scott’s face was covered by his helmet, so Tony wondered if he was mad at him for nearly getting his strange ant-child-thing killed. Baby Ant-Thony wandered around the minivan where they previously were, and then sat on the pavement as if he were moping. Natasha and Clint headed down the street towards them. Clint aimed an arrow at the car they were hidden behind while Natasha prepared to engage. Resisting the urge to curse, for they would hear him, and Steve would then tell him to watch his language, Tony adjusted the settings and controls on his suit. It was a working progress, but it might just work. When he saw the bewildered look on Steve’s face, and the reflection that he _didn’t_ have in on the side door of the car, he knew he had succeeded. He sped across the street in front of Clint and Natasha without being detected, and blasted a nearby car. They whipped around to examine what had just happened, while Tony, Steve, and Scott dashed for the tower. Tony let out a sigh of relief as they entered.

A confused Steve looked around, “Tony?”

“F.R.I.D.A.Y, deactivate camouflage.”

He sighed, “So you can turn invisible now?”

Tony shrugged, “It’s a working progress.”

Something nudged the back of his leg. He looked behind him and saw Baby Ant-Thony was now trying to headbutt him.

“Scott!”

He shrugged, still tiny, and Steve laughed, “Karma. I’m not sure he’s too happy you almost got him killed.”

Tony rolled his eyes, “Well, we’re about to go take a mind-controlling scepter from a psychopath Asguardian, and I don’t think we need Simba over here getting in the way.”

Scott, still perched on Steve’s shoulder, tilted his head and clasped his hands together in a pleading gesture.

Tony shook his head, “Yeah, no. And how come you’re still on his shoulder?”

He shrugged again and leapt off, landing on the gray titles before returning to his normal size.

Scott sighed, “Fine. Baby Antony, you wait here, ok?” He scratched Baby Antony’s head.

“F.R.I.D.A.Y, scan the area.” He studied the heat signatures in the tower, “That’s weird.”

Steve turned to him, “What is it?”

“We have only two other heat signatures in here and they’re on the top floor. One of them is a normal, body temperature rating and the other is off the charts. Take a wild guess at what they are.” He replied sarcastically.

“What the heck do you think he’s doing? Why is he alone up there?”

“I’ve got a bad feeling that we’re about to find out.”

When they reached the top floor, Loki stood, his back turned to them, staring out the window at the battle. He was holding his staff loosely beside his green robe. Tony could see his reflection in the glass window, and it looked as if Loki were contemplating something. His eyes then trailed up to see Tony, Steve, and Scott reflecting in the glass and his expression lifted into a smirk.

“Stark. Called for reinforcements I see. How out of character.”

Tony aimed his hand, blaster charged, at Loki.

Still back to them, Loki appeared comically unfazed, “The gang’s all here. There’s jolly ol’ Cap, _Odin, is that a beard_? I can’t say it suites you. And I don’t think I’ve even met you yet. Are you with S.H.I.E.L.D perhaps? I can’t keep track of _every_ _single_ Avenger.”

“Hey! I’m Scott!” He waved awkwardly.

Tony stared at him in disbelief, “Dude!”

“What?”

“You just freaking told this guy, ‘Hey, I’m Scott! While we’re at this, you wanna know my address and social security number’?”

He placed his hands on his hips, “I don’t talk like that. And I was just lightening the mood.”

Steve glanced at Tony for a split second before heaving a large chunk of debris at Loki. The moment Steve moved, Tony whipped around and fired at the bar behind them. The chunk of debris flew straight through the Loki at the window, and the real Loki emerged from the demolished bar.

“Ow.” He muttered sarcastically.

“Look, I know you’re a bad guy, but that was pretty awesome.” Scott grinned.

Tony rolled his eyes, “Don’t flatter him Scott.”

Using his staff, a large, fiery blue blast filled the room, shattering all the windows as Tony quickly formed a shield using the nanotechnology in his suit to protect them. Scott, however, was missing and they only saw him as he returned to his normal size, punching Loki right across the face, and shirking before he could strike back. In the mere moment he was distracted, Steve was about to send the edge of his shield flying into Loki’s chest, but he blocked it with the scepter, inching it closer to him.

Tony began to panic, “Steve!”

But Steve struck Loki in the side before the scepter could even touch him. Loki disappeared and then reappeared behind Tony, his knife unable to penetrate his suit. Using his nanotech, Tony enlarged and weaponized his fist, punched Loki, and knocked him backwards out the window. Scott appeared in his normal size, ran to the edge of the window, and looked down.

“That was… easy?” Scott commented doubtfully.

Tony flinched at a cracking noise above them. A long, narrow crack was widening in the ceiling, threating to give way. He made a shield for the second time that day, figuring it might be best just to keep one on hand at all times throughout this mission.

“Get down!” He instructed, covering the three of them.

As the dust cleared, they were surrounded by multiple of Loki’s clones.

Scott coughed, “Do you guys remember earlier when I was saying he was pretty cool?”

“Yeah.”

He sighed, “I take it back.”


	13. Leave the smashing to us

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Tony, Steve, and Scott are still in 2012 Battle of New York and still *trying* to get the mind stone. But this time with a little help.

As the clones began to emerge on them, Tony flew above and fired a continuous blast as he rotated, eliminating all of them at once. Every one of them disappeared into a green light. Tony caught a glimpse of a green fabric from the hole in the ceiling.

“Well, we were probably going to end up on the roof anyways.”

He flew out the shattered window and up to the roof, hovering over Loki who was in serious conversation with a brainwashed Erick Selvig.

“Whatcha talking bout Lok’?” Tony flashed a mischievous, sly smile; satisfied by Loki’s annoyed glance.

“Stark.”

“Sir?” Erick started, and Loki immediately turned around to throw a small knife at Scott, who had climbed out of the roof to sneak up on him while he was distracted.

However, Steve, who was a couple of feet away, threw a metal bar at the knife, knocking it out of the air before it could penetrate Scott.

Loki groaned, “Why can’t you all just die!”

Just then, almost twenty more Chitauri warriors emerged from the portal and landed on the roof with them.

“Oh. Well that was convenient.” Loki grinned.

Tony landed in front of Loki, who swung at him with his staff. He held the end of the staff with a firm grip.

“Aww! Loki! For me? This what I’ve always wanted! You shouldn’t have.” Tony laughed humorously.

“You can’t beat me with quips, Stark!”

“I know, but they sure are distracting.”

Steve grabbed Loki from behind, “Let it go, Loki.”

“Now why would I do that, Captain?”

The Chitauri were now trying to pry Steve and Tony off Loki and his scepter. They had forced Tony’s arms behind his back and pinned Steve on the ground. Loki smirked drifting past them towards Scott, who was still fighting back Chitauri warriors, the staff’s gem glowing a fiery blue.

“Scott!” A Chitauri warrior firmly put a hand over Tony’s mouth.

All the sudden, a series of blasts rained down on them, causing the Chitauri to let go in the confusion.

“Nice one, Tony!” Steve sliced one of the Chitauri warriors across the chest.

“Steve, that wasn’t me...” Tony trailed off as the Iron Man that belonged to this reality appeared next to them.

“Who the hell are you guys?”

“...We’re, um, from the future, I guess.” Steve explained, “It’s a long story.”

"Wait, no, no, no!"

Scott was shoved off the roof by one of the Chitauri warriors. However, he came back as tall as the building. He grabbed the Chitauri that had shoved him off and threw him as far as he could across New York.

"Amazing how that's still not the weirdest thing I've seen today." The other Tony commented sarcastically.

"Holy crap! Is that a spaceship?" Scott exclaimed as he swatted it out of the sky.

All the sudden, Thor flew up by his shoulder and hit another one with his hammer as it erupted into lighting and crashed to the ground.

"Woah, Thor!" He gasped excitedly, "Wow, I'm a big fan of yours!"

Thor beamed, "Why thank you, vertically gifted Midguardian."

Clint, Natasha, and Steve appeared on the roof as well.

"Uh, Tony…" Natasha started, "What's going on? And why does that Steve have a beard?"

Clint nodded slowly, "Yeah, I don't think I can handle two of you either."

"Hi Clint!" Scott waved cheerfully.

Clint wrinkled his brow in confusion and awkwardly waved up to him, "Uh, hey."

"Oh, yeah, right! Sorry, we're friends in the future, so…" He pointed to Natasha, "And you bet me up in the future."

The other Steve tightened the strap on his shield as another wave of Chitauri fell through the portal, "If you guys really are from the future, then you know we're in a really tight situation right... Avengers!"

They all teamed up against the Chitauri, blasting, firing, attacking, striking, and quipping.

"New shield?" The other Steve asked, glancing at them as he through his own into a Chitauri warrior's chest.

Steve grinned, nodding, as he sliced his through a Chitauri warrior charging at them.

"Hey Thor, buddy! This one's for you!" Scott exclaimed, picking up Loki by his green robes and tossing him up in the air.

Thor pounded him back into the ground with his hammer and took the ceiling along with him. Scott shrank back to his normal size, defending Clint from a furious Chitauri as Natasha electrocuted another one in midair as it jumped through the collapsed ceiling.

“HULK SMASH!”

“Hulk! Wait! Nonono, the building isn’t-,” the other Tony began, but Hulk either didn’t hear him or didn’t care.

The roof fully collapsed in on itself. Tony grabbed hold of Steve’s arm and flew above the wreckage, the other Tony hovering beside them.

“See? Look what you did! That’s why I said-,”

“Hulk smash what Hulk want to smash.” Hulk crossed his arms.

“Fine! What’s up with you today? So pouty.” The other Tony smirked.

Hulk shrugged, “Aliens make Hulk want to smash.”

The other Tony rolled his eyes, “You can smash the aliens, as long as you don’t get carried away.”

Hulk held up on of the Chitauri warriors, “Hulk _did _smash aliens. What do you mean, ‘carried away’?”

“You know what I mean.”

Tony and Steve landed on top of the debris near Erick Selvig, who was frantically trying to reopen the portal.

“Hey, Hulk!” Steve called, interrupting their argument, “There’s more stuff to smash over here!”

Hulk’s bright green eyes lit up with delight, “HULK SMASH!”

A look of panic washed over Selvig as he acted as a shield for the portal, but the Hulk tossed him aside as if he were a pebble. Selvig managed to sit back up, but not before the portal was eventual nothing more than a pile of damaged parts. Using his scanner, Tony detected two other heat signatures and the same off-the-charts signature. Dread came rising up in his throat. He took off running towards it, Steve right behind him. But they were too late. Scott lay on the ground, covered in pieces of debris and a layer of dust. His nose and forehead were bleeding, and his eyes were closed the way they would be if someone was dreaming, rather than in pain. Also, the gem of Loki’s scepter was pressed up to Scott’s chest.

“No!” Steve cried, rushing over to protect him.

Scott’s eyes opened at the sound of his voice, but instead of their usual, cheerful yet daring green, they were the same intense blue of the gem in the scepter without a trace of emotion. Tony didn’t have as close of a connection to Scott as Steve had, but to anyone who had known him, it was painful to see him like that. Loki took a step back, wickedly grinning at Steve. The shock must have been enough to stop him for a moment as he looked from Loki to Scott before slapping Loki across the face. Loki, however, swiftly dodged. The scepter’s light grew even more intense as Scott mechanically rose up. Tony rushed over, forcing him back down and placing a firm hand over his chest.

“This will be so much easier on everyone if you just stand down.” Tony whispered, then added humorously, “I’m going to take your creepy, blank stare as, ‘Sure thing Tony’!”

He shot multiple nanobots out of his suit which proceeded to fire blasts at Loki and aid Steve while also trying to maintain his grip on Scott, who was now thrashing and trying to resist him.

“Hey, keep it together Scott. Fight him.” Tony sighed, “Steve, you wanna trade?”

“I’m a little busy at the moment.” He muttered through gritted teeth while fighting off Loki.

Tony wasn’t sure if trying to talk him out of it was a wise use of their time, “Steve.” He hesitated, “I’m going to try to shock Loki out of him.”

Steve didn’t respond for a moment, “Are you serious? That could hurt him!”

“Do you have any better ideas?!”

“HULK SMASH!”

The Hulk smashed through a mountain of debris, the other Tony and Thor flying above him, the other Steve and Natasha on either side of him, and Clint aiming an arrow at Loki's head.

“Go take care of your buddy. We’ll make sure Loki doesn’t get anybody else.” The other Tony assured them.

Hulk grinned, “Leave the smashing to us.”

Loki had already generated more clones, and the remaining Chitauri who had survived being crushed by debris had come to join the fight as well. Then Scott brought his feet up under Tony’s chest and kicked him off. He threw a punch a Steve, who caught his fist in the air.

“Scott! Is this want Cassie would have wanted?”

Scott was taken aback and stopped fighting. Tony seized the opportunity to blast him with a lower frequency shock that would work the same way as a taser. His closed his eyes in pain and stubbled backwards as Steve caught him, supporting him. His breathing had become significantly heavier.

“How did you know that would work? Who’s Cassie?” Tony asked Steve.

“She’s my daughter.” Scott muttered, as if trying to shake off a daze.

Tony placed a hand on his shoulder, “You good?”

Scott opened his eyes. They were still fiery blue, but they were focused and appeared pained and afraid. Emotion and color flooded back into his face.

“I don’t know.” He whispered, shaking his head.

Loki was staring at them, puzzled. Just before the other Tony threw Loki across the room, the light from Loki’s scepter intensified, and Scott collapsed, wincing in pain. One of Loki’s clones drifted towards them.

“All the pain would go away if you surrender.” There was something snake-like about the way he said it.

Scott looked up determinedly, “Never.”

Loki’s clone shrugged, “Suit yourself.”

Tony obliterated him with a single blast of his repulsor while Scott tried to stand.

“We have to get his scepter.”

“Scott, you’re not…” Steve paused, “Yourself. You’re not ready too,”

Scott smiled, “Don’t worry about me. We have bigger problems. Half the universe depends on it!”

Tony felt Scott suddenly tense, and realized why as he spotted Loki approaching them, his green robe tattered, and his scepter clasped tightly in his hand.

“You are either the most courageous or the stupidest mortal I’ve ever encountered.”

Scott comedically bowed, “Why, thank you. I aim to please.”

He pounded his scepter on the ground, “You dare defy me, Mortal?”

Scott and Loki locked eyes.

Tony squeezed his shoulder, “Don’t let him get to you.”

“He both know I’m stronger.” Loki wickedly sneered, “You’re weak. You said it yourself, you’re expendable. Hank Pym doesn’t care what happens to you, and neither does Hope. She was glad you were caught in Germany, and she’s waiting for the next best chance to get you out of her life again.”

Tony could tell that was hurting him more than the physical pain. He aimed his fully charged repulsor at Loki, along with his nanobots.

“That’s funny.” Scott commented sarcastically before he could shoot, “Cause I remember Hope saying if she had gone to Germany, then we wouldn’t have gotten caught.”

His eyes flickered their daring green, until the green fully overcame the blue. He tackled Loki, pinning him to the ground. Loki held up his scepter between them defensively.

“It won’t work.” Scott breathed, “He’ll kill you, then half the universe. And you’re giving him exactly what he needs to do it.”

Loki stared at him unblinking, and a confused, contemplating look settled on his face.

“It’s not too late to fix things.” Scott looked down at the pulsing light coming from the scepter, “Hey guys, should it be doing that?” He asked nervously.

The scepter erupted and a blinding, white light consumed the room. Tony felt like he had been hit by a train and didn’t even realize that he was lying on the ground. He felt someone lightly tap his shoulder and turned over on his side where Scott was kneeling beside him.

“You okay?”

“Yeah, I’m…” Tony suddenly jerked upwards, “What the hell? Scott! Are _you_ ok?”

He blinked, “Oh, oh yeah. I’m good.”

Tony was unconvinced, “Really? Cause you were just…” He trailed off, noticing Scott’s wristband was tinted yellow.

Scott grinned playfully, tapping his wristband, “Gotta catch ‘em all.”

Tony rolled his eyes and heard Steve groan from behind him. They appeared to be the only ones in the room. All the cement dust that had pervaded the air had settled.

“You didn’t shrink Loki and feed him to your ant-child, did you?”

Scott laughed, “No, Thor picked him up.”

“Okay.” To say he was relived would have been an overstatement, for he hadn’t felt any sort of relief since they had gotten involved with the Infinity Stones and Thanos.

Tony got back on his feet, meeting Steve at the window. Scott looked down at Baby Ant-Thony, who was now scurrying happily down the streets.

“They grow up so fast.” Steve commented humorously.

He smiled, “Yeah.” He paused, coming back more serious, “Guys, I don’t think that was Loki calling the shots back there.”

Tony and Steve both wore the same puzzled look as Steve asked, “What do you mean?”

“I, I think he was being controlled by someone else.” He explained, “This is going to sound crazy, but during that staring contest of death or whatever when he was trying to get in my head, I think it sort of reversed for a second cause I saw him making some sort of deal with Thanos. It felt sort of like a flashback, except I was him. And he was panicking for some reason, and then it was like having that thing jabbed in my chest all over again.”

“If someone was controlling Loki with this,” Tony pointed at Scott’s wristband, “Then that only makes it more dangerous. Another reason we should get it back home as soon as possible.”

Scott began to activate his wristband as Tony grabbed Steve by the shoulder, “You don’t think we screwed things up too bad here?”

He smiled, pointing out the window at the newly formed Avengers working together to rid New York of the remaining Chitauri warriors, “I think they’ll be just fine.”


	14. All Star

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Carol and Kamala head off to take down Thanos. And listen to Smash Mouth.

Carol always loved flying. The feeling of taking off, flying high above the ground and charted territory. She couldn’t remember a time when the yoke didn’t feel natural in her hands. The skies were as beautiful as they were uncharted, plus there was never any rush hour traffic in the air. Conversations never really felt forced on aircrafts either, in fact, you could be on an aircraft with someone and not say a word without it getting awkward. Sometimes it was nice to just look out the window and take it all in. And there was a heck of a lot to take in in space. Kamala gazed in awe at the clusters of stars that surrounded them.

“Oh my god.” She said breathlessly, “OhmyGod,OhmyGod,OhmyGod.”

Carol smiled at her, “Is this your first time in space?”

“Yeah, this is my first time out of New Jersey! And on any kind of plane for that matter.” She held her phone up to the glass and took a picture of the scene.

Kamala’s dark hair was pushed behind her shoulders. Shadows crossed over her face, not making her features look older, but instead more mature. Her warm, brown eyes were filled with wonder and curiosity, rather than innocence. And her suit…

“I like the lightning bolt.”

Kamala blushed, “That means the world coming from you!”

A button on her left flashed, signaling the ship was ready to jump, “Hey kiddo, you’re going to want to hold on to something.”

Using her arm as if it were a rope, Kamala tied it in a knot around a metal bar attached to the side of the ship near the window.

The ship lurched forward as it jumped across space. They reappeared on the other side of the galaxy.

“Do you ever feel like that’s kind of like entering hyperspace in Star Wars?” Kamala asked grinning.

Carol nodded, “Absolutely. Star Wars is still the thing that I don’t know how I lived without in space! My parents even had a cat named Chewie when I was a kid.”

“Oh my gosh. That’s awesome.” She sighed, “Man, the originals were so good! I mean, I like Rey and BB-8 and all, but,”

“Hold up, they made new ones?”

“Yeah, we’re on episode eight!”

“Crap.” Carol muttered, “I’m really behind!”

“It’s ok; they’re not as good as the originals.”

She laughed, “You know, when all this is over, we should have a big movie night and watch them!”

Kamala gasped, “An Avengers movie night?! Oh my gosh! That’s every fanfiction writer’s dream come true!”

She raised a brow at her, “Fanfiction?”

“Wait! No, no, no it’s not what you think!” Kamala began frantically, but Carol laughed.

“No, I know. You don’t seem like you’re that kind of fanfiction writer.”

She gave a light laugh, “Well… my parents always complain about it saying that’s all I do, which is physically impossible and also considering my life, is not all I do.” Her face fell as she mentioned them and trialed off, “… Or they used to at least.”

Carol slid her hand over Kamala’s and lightly squeezed it, “We’ll get them back.”

She nodded. Had been put in her position, Carol would’ve done the same thing. That didn’t make it fair though. Carol had lost her life and started over, but how could she be sure if Kamala lost her’s, she would be so lucky?

However, one of the most ironic things they had in common is that they were different. Kamala was unlike any kid she had come across. For one thing, she was brave, and that was the most important quality in any hero in her book. It made sense why the kid was an Avengers fangirl. She could fend for herself, but in the short amount of time Carol had known her, she wanted to do whatever she could to keep her from Thanos’s deathly clutches.

“Hey, is Smash Mouth still the greatest band ever?” Carol asked out loud this time.

“Oof.” Kamala laughed, “I think the title of ‘greatest band ever’ goes to Panic! At the Disco, but Smash Mouth is pretty cool too. I have their Astro Lounge album!”

The next thing Carol knew, she and Kamala were belting out the lyrics of _All Star_ along with the track on Kamala’s phone.

* * *

They had reached it at last. Ronan the Accuser’s search for the power stone had led them to this place when she was a member of Star Force. Thanos came here, publicly displaying his power and his goal by gathering the entire population of the planet, splitting them apart, and then murdering half of them. Rumors had been said that his daughter, Gamora, was originally from this very planet.

Carol didn’t like the feel of the place. It was an eerie kind of peaceful. The grass flourished and swayed in the light breeze. It was impossible to tell that a horrific massacre had ever occurred on this planet. But that’s what Thanos had been doing this whole time, right? Glorifying deaths and murdering people for a better future.

Kamala squinted in the light of the rising sun, “Ok, this place is way too quiet. Did you think it was going to be, like, a post-apocalyptic society or something, or was that just me?”

“Yeah… Remember where we parked the spaceship.”

She started off towards the forest and flew through the trees. Kamala grew taller and broke through them beneath her. On the other side of the forest, a bright green field, hundreds of acers wide, stretched out before them.

“Oh my gosh!” Kamala cried.

Carol whipped around in time to see Kamala crush something embedded in a heavily armored, metal suit. The remains were scattered on the ground, including a long, wood post.

“Scarecrow.” She sighed, “I knew that.”

Carol landed on the ground next to her, turning over the helmet, “Battle armor. We’re close.”

Kamala scrunched up her face in confusion, “Yeah. Farmer Thanos. That’s the first thing I would do after I murdered half the universe too.”

Off in the distance, there was something that looked like a small, wooden hut. A slight chill filled the air around them.

“Stay on alert, Kamala.”

The closer they got to the hut, the slower they approached it from behind. It didn’t have a door, just an open gap that could overlook the field. Carol’s clenched fist began to glow as she prepared to ambush whatever horror was inside. Suddenly, she paused at the cold touch of Kamala’s hand on her forearm. Carol turned around to face the young girl, her hand trembling on Carol’s arm. Kamala’s brown eyes blinked back at her, looking slightly embarrassed.

“Oh, um, I’m sorry.” She whispered.

Carol placed her non-glowing hand on the back of Kamala’s shoulder, “What’s wrong kiddo?”

She closed her eyes, “I’m scared. I’m sorry. I’m not fearless, like you, or Captain America, or,”

“Hey, look at me.” Kamala opened her eyes and Carol pulled her into a hug with her free arm, “Don’t be sorry. There’s no such thing as fearless. Everyone’s afraid of something, and if you’re not afraid of facing a psychopath who murdered half the universe, then you’re not alive. I don’t know many people who are entirely fearless, but you can be brave. You just have to do it in spite of fear. Can you do that for me?”

She nodded and whispered, “Thank you.”

Carol counted down from three on her fingers and then they burst into the hut, “Show yourself!”

The rising sun highlighted the dust floating about the air. Every nerve in her body warned her of a danger that didn’t appear to be there, but she could sense something was there, hiding in plain sight. Fist still glowing, she approached the stand in the center of the room.

“Is that…” Kamala started.

Carol nodded. It was demolished, as Thor had said, but each Infinity Stone gave off a faint light of its own signature color.

Kamala walked around the stand, “He would just leave it out in the open, not unless…” She trailed off.

Carol noticed that the red reality stone was giving off a pulsating light.

“Kamala! We have to,”

Carol was cut off by Kamala’s cry of, “Oh my God!”

On the other side of the bed, the remains of the Mad Titan lay in a pool of purple blood.

“Come on! We don’t have much time!”

Carol and Kamala turned to find Thanos menacingly standing in the threshold of the hut. The scene reset around them in a flash of red, carrying the gauntlet and the tattered corpse away with it.

“Crud.” Carol muttered.

“Reality can be…” He paused, “Deceiving.”

Kamala balled her hands up into fists. Carol pointed her glowing one at him.

“You have the guts to attempt the change reality.” He gave a humorless laugh, “It will make killing you disappointing.”

“Can’t say the same for you.” Carol remarked.

“I must admit. I did not know you were an Avenger.”

Carol hesitated, “I’m not.”

Thanos smiled, “You were a good solider.”

“Which is why I’m not one anymore. I would pick being a good person over being a good solider.”

She fired an energy blast that Thanos counteracted with a blast from the gauntlet. A bright light erupted from where the two beams met in the middle. Kamala ducked around them to get behind Thanos. She tried to pull away his arm with the gauntlet, however, he grabbed her by her lengthened arm and tossed her with great force over his shoulder. The explosion from the two energy forces had demolished the hut.

Carol flew up in the air to catch her, lowering her to the ground, then taking a fiery punch at the Mad Titan. He was flung backwards and wore a look of shock that morphed into determination.

“I’d say come at me bro, but I have a feeling you’re going to do that anyway.” Kamala wittily commented, enlarging her fist.

She swung at Thanos and he hit her back. Hard.

Both of Carol’s fists turned a vibrant, glowing orange. She punched the Titan across the face, then flew up in the air before the speeding to the ground, a burst of radiant energy threw him back as she hit the ground.

This time, he looked infuriated. He lurched at her, grabbing her by the shoulders. She grabbed his hand without the gauntlet and skillfully ducked under his arm. Then, she pressed his arm behind his back and energy blasted him in the face.

“Pin him down, Kamala!”

Kamala stretched her limbs, using them as ropes to tie down the Mad Titan. Carol placed a firm hand over his chest, her free arm glowing. Just as she was about to beat the crap out of him, she noticed the blue space stone was glowing steadily.

“Carol! Behind you!” Kamala cried.

Carol spun around to see the gigantic moon about to crash down on them. She flew through the air like a rocket and caught it. Planting both hands on it, teeth gritted, she forced it back up into the sky. However, as soon as the moon was safety out of the atmosphere of the planet, a green haze the color of the time stone surrounded it and it came crashing down even faster than before. Carol sped downwards to try and stop it from reaching the ground, but it was too late. The impact destroyed everything it touched and then stretched even further. Carol was tossed backwards from the force. Thanos stood at the center of the chaos, hand over his head.

Kamala pushed a large rock off herself, “Holy crap! Did you just throw a moon?! That’s really scary and really cool all at the same time!”

Thanos used the gauntlet to chuck the large remains of the moon at them.

“You know!” Kamala yelled loudly over the sound of smashing rocks, “For a guy who wiped out half of the life in the universe, I don’t think you’re going to be a very good farmer, cause like, plants are considered life and you’re supposed to care for them, definition of farmer. I can pretty much guarantee you that that’s already a meme. Also, does the whole snap thing not affect plants or,” She broke a giant rock flying at her with her embiggened hand.

“I’ll give you a fair warning, little girl.” Thanos’s voice was low and raspy, “This has happened before. A strong being who believes they can overcome fate.” He glanced at Carol, “Brings along a _child_. Last time, I killed that child. But children are the future of this glorious, new future. Don’t make the same mistakes he did.” Thanos balled his hand with the gauntlet into a fist.

“I’m not _little_.” Kamala protested, literally growing multiple feet in height, “Only when I want to be.”

She raised her foot above the Titan and stepped on him. Carol flew up to Kamala’s shoulder level. Just then, he slowly lifted Kamala’s foot off himself.

“Come _on_!” Kamala groaned.

Carol smirked, “Welcome to my world, kiddo.”

Thanos shoved Kamala to the ground. Startled, she returned to her normal size and Carol caught her in the air before she hit the ground. As the landed, Carol turned to face Thanos and closed her eyes. When she opened them again, they were glowing a bright, sunset orange. She let all the energy radiate and burst from her body in a bright, fiery explosion, sending the Titan flying.

“Woah.” Kamala breathed, “That. Was. So. Flipping. Cool. I’ve gotta use that move in a fanfic!”

However, Carol balled up her fists, “We’re just getting started.”


	15. Not Sympathy, Just Concern

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> It's up to Thor to retrieve the Tesseract... and someone else as well.

Thor cautiously moved about the spaceship, gripping Stormbreaker tightly, searching for signs if Thanos had already decimated Asguard. It was silent and the silence only became more unbearably piercing and the emptiness even more disquieting at the unsettling thought of this possibly being one of the few remaining moments before Thanos’s massacre of Asguard.

Thor froze at the sudden sound of terrified shrieks. He was too late. Despite that, he sprinted to the sound in one last attempt to fix things. As the tall, steel double doors came into view, Thor swung Strombreaker at them, causing them to break open and clattered to the ground in a burst of electricity. He emerged from the dust and witnessed Thanos beginning to board their ship from the outside as his followers tethered their ships together and began killing off his people. The Mad Titan stared down Thor intensely with his dark, soulless eyes.

“It won’t work!” Thor bellowed, “Your plan! It will only make things worse!”

Thanos stepped off the bridge as the heads of his followers turned to him, waiting for his response, “Step down, Boy. You don’t understand our universe as I do.”

“You murder the innocent and call it mercy!” Thor exclaimed, swelling up with anguish.

“A small price to pay. The ends of their insignificant lives with benefit all of the future generations.”

Anguish morphed into anger as his body began to circulate with electricity. He flew through the air and let his axe penetrate Thanos’s chest plate. Lighting erupted from the axe and Thor himself. He pushed the axe even further as images of Loki being choked to death, Heimdall being stabbed through the heart, and his friends’ and allies’ ashes drifting away flashed before his eyes. The Mad Titan cried out in agony and it sounded so loud in his ears he barely heard the familiar laugh over his shoulder behind him.

“Oh Brother, you idiot! You did this same thing last time, don’t you remember?”

Thor froze in shock and turned his head slowly, catching a glimpse of the trickster’s green cloak before Thanos grabbed him by the throat. The gauntlet felt cold against his neck as Thanos lifted him off his feet. He choked as the grip tighten, slowly forcing the life out of him. However, Thanos studied him before tossing him against the hard, metal wall.

Loki held out the glowing, icy blue Tesseract to Thanos, “You must excuse my brother’s stupidity. He can be quite…” He paused, “Barbaric. At times.”

Thor rolled his eyes. Despite the numerous times Loki had turned against him before, he couldn’t help feeling a pang of disappointment, most likely because his brother’s gruesome fate was still fresh in his mind.

“You have served this cause well, Boy.” Thanos’s voice came out low and raspy as his hand with the gauntlet closed around the cube.

Loki smirked, fading away in a wisp of green, “I know.”

Rays of a blinding white light burst from the Tesseract, consuming the scene.

* * *

Thor tried to blink away the spots in his vision. He realized he was no longer against the wall, and the launch bay was now empty. Strombreaker hung loosely by his fingertips, its electricity conducted and a faint purple stain on its blade. He also realized he was leaning back to back with someone as he heard a soft laugh behind him.

“Oh, you should have seen his face!”

A million thoughts raced through his head, however, he let out a sigh, “I’m going to turn around and you’re still going to be dead, aren’t you?”

He felt Loki shrug, “Maybe. It’d make sense if I was. Rather convincing, wasn’t it? The ‘Great Mad Titan’ certainly didn’t see it coming…”

“Stop!” Thor cried, letting his head fall in line with his knees, “Just stop! I don’t care how you did it. I saw you die for the third time and I’m sick of it!”

“Of what?”

“Of!” Thor struggled for a response, “You!” He blurted angrily.

Loki inhaled sharply, “You know, everything would be so much easier if you weren’t such a drama queen and so dependent on your relationships with other people.”

“Oh, so it’s my fault I care about my brother!” Thor retorted.

“Quite frankly, yes. If you weren’t so torn up about me dying, then maybe Thanos would have been stopped and you could have saved that silly, little world you care oh so much about, the first time around!”

“Oh please! You think that it’s all about you! Every Asgardian was brutally murdered, in case you forgot!”

“You mourn.” Loki replied smugly, “I know you talked to the badger.”

“Rabbit.” Thor corrected, “And how did you…? Nevermind. You were probably aiding Thanos the entire time anyways. I wouldn’t be surprised. What do you want? Why are you here?”

He felt Loki tense at his words, then he passed Thor the space stone; its protective, outer cube chilled against his fingertips, “I’m not aiding him. Not at this point in the game, at least. Just take the stupid tesseract, that’s why you’re here, isn’t it?”

Thor was taken slightly aback, “Yeah.” He turned the tesseract over in his hand, “Seriously though, how did you know about the Rabbit?”

He sighed, “You and your friends aren’t the only ones who have been traveling through time using the quantum realm. I faked my death, knowing I could come back to that exact moment to finish Thanos off for good. It took a while, but I eventually made it. However, I didn’t count on you making an appearance as well.”

“Sorry about that.” Thor commented sarcastically and bitterly, “Just trying to save the universe. Don’t mind me.”

“And you’re doing quite a good job at it.” Loki shot back, “Don’t think for a minute that I believe you _care_ about me.”

“I do care about you.”

“We both know what this is really about.” He continued, “It’s about those mortals, your _friends_. And may I ask where they are now?”

“Watch it, Loki.” Thor growled the warning.

“Oh right! They’re all piles of ash!”

Thor leapt to his feet, gripping Strombreaker as hard as he could, facing his brother, all the anguish from the traumatic events Thanos had caused swelled up in his throat, “You have no idea the pain he has brought us!”

“I have no idea?!” Loki cried, cutting him off, an unsettling expression settling on his brother’s face, “Really, Brother? I have no idea of the pain? He was in my head for the last six years!”

Thor shifted back, stunned, “What?”

Loki closed his eyes and sighed, “Nothing. Just, forget about it.”

Thor broke the long silence between them by awkwardly patting his brother on the shoulder, “Please. Tell me.”

He wore a sad smile, “Sympathy doesn’t suite you.”

“Not sympathy. Just concern.” Thor assured him.

There was another pause before Loki spoke again, “After I fell off the bridge in Asguard all those years ago, Thanos found me. I still wanted the throne, and he said he would help me obtain it. He gave me the staff with the mind gem embedded within it and the power of that blasted stone overtook me. I mean, I would have probably done something like that anyways on my own terms, but I guess, in a strange way, it all worked out. You have your silly, little team of dress-up playing friends, so…” He stared back at an unblinking Thor, “What is it?”

“Why didn’t you ever say anything?! This whole time, Father thought-,”

Loki grunted, crossing his arms, “Oh, Father wouldn’t have cared.”

“He might have!” Thor sighed, “I would have.”

He smiled sadly, “I know you would have, which is exactly why I couldn’t tell you.”

“Loki…” Thor shook his head regretfully.

“I figured Thanos would kill you anyway.” Loki continued matter-of-factly, “But if it makes you feel better, I also didn’t tell you to push that day back a little farther.” His signature smirk crossed his face, “And besides, I’m me after all! I must have at least a few secrets up my sleeve. I like to keep people guessing.”

Although their relationship wasn’t perfect, Thor greatly cared about his younger brother. And maybe somewhere deep down in his everchanging, twisted heart, he cared about Thor as well. Adopted or not, friends or enemies, they were still brothers after all.

Thor bear hugged the mischievous trickster. After watching the universe fall apart around him and unable to stop it, it was gratifying to know that not everything was lost. He felt Loki lightly pat him on the back.

“Alright. Are you done?”

Thor smirked, letting him go, “I don’t know. Are you done faking your own death?”

“Of course not. Where’s the excitement in that?”

He groaned, “You son of an Ice Giant.” He held up the glowing, icy blue cube, “It’s about time we get this back to Earth.”

Loki shook his head, “I’m not coming with you.”

“Why not?” Thor asked in disbelief.

“This is your fight.”

Thor gripped his brother’s shoulder, “You’re wrong. This is as much of you fight as it is anyone else’s. We can stop him together.”

“Oh, Brother…” Loki sighed, shaking his head, “One of these days your naïve behavior will get you killed.” He paused, “But I suppose I should just be grateful that that day is not today.”

“We shall avenge Asguard!” Thor cried joyfully.

Loki rolled his eyes and despite the situation, Thor smiled. There was still hope. His brother was alive. And together, they might just have a shot at undoing what Thanos did.

He grabbed his brother’s forearm, activated his armband, and the two of them were whisked back through the quantum realm.


	16. Inner Fangirl

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Kamala and Carol team up with Valkyrie and Korg to take down Thanos.

“Holy crap!”

Kamala was slammed to the ground by a blast from Infinity Gauntlet. The impact shook throughout her bones. An intense, ear-piercing ringing caused her skull to painfully ache. She spat out a mouthful of soil and dirt. Digging both fists into the ground, she pushed herself up and looked over her shoulder. Trees had toppled over under the influence of energy blasts and the powers of the Infinity Gauntlet. Ruins of Thanos’s farm lie next to the debris of asteroids he had thrown at them. The sky was dusty and gloomy. Kamala wondered exactly how much longer they would be able to keep this up.

Another blast took over her body, except this time it didn’t throw her across the field. In fact, she couldn’t even move. She was lifted off the ground, surrounded by a blue light. Her teeth clenched as she saw a blurred image of Thanos’s face. The gauntlet’s power seemed like it was somehow becoming stronger than before. A familiar sunset orange glow hit Thanos right across the head, causing him to drop Kamala.

She grunted as she hit the ground again and the sunset orange was hurled away in a flash of icy blue. The next thing she was conscious of was the frigid cold death grip of the Infinity Gauntlet around her ankle. Thanos held her upside down in the air as she glared at him determinedly.

“You know, there was this purple pick-up truck I saw on the interstate one time. It had this ridiculously large black front bumper. It kinda looked like you.”

Thanos reached for her head as she swiftly ducked forward and twisted herself around his body and roped her arm around his throat. He stepped backwards and Kamala clung onto to him as tight as she could as he pulled her from his throat. She retracted herself and leapt in the air, kicking Thanos in the side of the head.

Just then, Captain Marvel flew in and attacked him from above. Kamala whipped around to help her hero, but just as she charged at Thanos, he opened a portal which she fell through, crash landing on the other side of the woods.

“Oh, come on!” She cried from the familiar clearing.

Kamala yanked a branch from her tangled hair and tore back through the trees. She was thrown back by a white light that erupted on the other side of the trees.

She groaned, sitting upright, then came to a panicked realization, “Captain Marvel!”

The ends of her bright red scarf trailed behind her as she sprinted into the scene. Captain Marvel hovered in the air, energy circulating her body, focusing it on Thanos as he persevered forward. She only shone brighter the more he tried, until he finally grabbed hold of her arm. Kamala raced down the slope and jumped through the air, landing on Thanos’s back as she extended herself, ferociously trying to pry him from Captain Marvel. She then sent a fiery punch at him as Kamala continued trying to pull him back. Large chucks of debris flew at her as she countered in rays of energy blasts.

Thanos eventually tossed Kamala over his head and she slid backwards on her feet through the dirt and stopped herself with her hand. She shot up an intense look at the Mad Titan and blew a thick stand of dark brown hair from her face. The corners of her mouth curved into a determined smile as she swung her enlarged fist at him.

However, he swung back, knocking the wind out of her chest. As she fell to the ground, she caught a glimpse of Captain Marvel’s infuriated expression as she flew high in the air and pelted Thanos with the energy from both her fists.

“Get up, Kamala.” She muttered to herself, “Get up, Ms. Marvel.”

She managed to kick Thanos in the shin before leaping up to the ground.

“I assume you realize you fight for the wrong cause.” Thanos held the gauntlet above his head, creating a shield to block the blasts.

Kamala rolled her eyes, “I assume you realize that’s the most cliché villain stuff.”

“Oh, I’m not the villain of this story.”

“Uh huh. That’s what they all say.”

He gestured to the sky, “The universe is perfectly balanced.”

“Oh yeah? Then how come there’s still fighting? Not just here, but all over the freaking universe! Heck, the second Captain Marvel and Ant-Man stepped out of the quantum realm, S.H.E.I.L.D. was already hot on their heels. People are scared, and you can’t ‘cure’ the universe of that.”

The Mad Titian studied her with black, soulless eyes, “You have great power. You have yet to apply it to its maximum potential.” His somber expression morphed into a devilish smile, “As have I.”

A bright, powerful blast, the faint colors of all the Infinity Stones, projected from the gauntlet, impacting Captain Marvel and sending her falling from the sky.

“No!”

Kamala grew multiple feet in height and her right hand embiggened as she reached out to catch her. Captain Marvel sat upright in the palm of her hand as Thanos used the gauntlet to hurl large chunks of debris at Kamala. She raised her foot over him and kicked him to the ground. The debris rained on the ground. She returned to her normal size, gently setting Captain Marvel on the ground.

“Thanks, Kiddo.”

Kamala felt herself intensely blushing, “Yeah, sure thing!”

A thought occurred to her regarding what Thanos had previously said about power. Was he holding his back, and if he was, why?

Captain Marvel suddenly grabbed Kamala by the arm and pulled her behind herself. She fired a powerful, radiant energy blast to counter the multicolored one of the Mad Titan’s.

Kamala squinted, noticing the red glow of the reality stone was beginning to shine brighter than the others. The next thing she knew she was sinking into the dirt. It came up around her shoulders, eating at the world around her; suffocating her.

All the sudden, Kamala caught a glimpse of a flash of silver that struck Thanos from behind, and the force crumbled. She let out a small sigh of relief as she tried to dig herself out of the dirt. A moment later, she felt a rough but gentle hand grab the back of her suit and pull her up.

She looked over her shoulder to find a gray creature made entirely of stone staring back at her.

“Grah! Oh my gosh!” She exclaimed, holding up her fists defensively.

“Hello! I’m Korg! As you can see, I’m made of rocks, but don’t let that intimidate you. Unless you’re made of scissors. Just a little rock-paper-scissors joke for you.” The creature, Korg, smiled cheerfully.

“Oh,” She slowly lowered her fists, “That’s cool. I’m Kamala.”

“According to my very good friend, Valkyrie, we’re supposed to be here to fight this big purple alien man who has turned everybody to dust.” He grinned, pointing behind Kamala, “Oh, would you look at that! There he is now!”

Thanos menacingly approached the new figure, Valkyrie. Her long, glinting sword was drawn by her side, and her body was protected by white and gold armor. The wind tore at her sky-blue cape and long, wavy, dark brown hair. She slashed at the Mad Titan; an infuriated look written across her face.

“Ah, don’t let Valkyrie intimidate you either.” Korg smiled, “She may be a fierce warrior, but secretly, she really likes hot chocolate and warm hugs. I mean, sure, she’s a little hesitant to trusting people and making friends on the account of her girlfriend being violently murdered by Thor’s evil, older sister, turning into an acholic, watching her only home burn to the ground and suffering complete annihilation…”

“Korg!” Valkyrie yelled to the rocky giant, swinging her sword at Thanos’s legs, “Why don’t you quit telling the child my life story?”

He grinned, “Yep. She’s a hoot.”

Kamala stretched herself around the Mad Titan, trying to hold him steady, as Valkyrie sliced at him. Captain Marvel landed behind her, firing an intense blast to his face.

She looked over her shoulder at Valkyrie and Korg, “Who the hell are you guys?”

Korg waved merrily, “Hello! I’m Korg, and this is my very good friend here, Mink.” He paused, “Oh wait. Mink is dead.”

“Oh my god, I’m so sorry.” Kamala replied sincerely.

“It’s alright mate.” Korg’s smile returned, “That’s why we’re going to make sure this guy right here responsible for turning half the universe into piles of ash suffers a horrid, miserable fate.”

“Oh, uh, ok.”

Thanos tore Kamala from himself and threw her to the ground.

Valkyrie pulled her back across the ground away from him as she turned on her spot, slashing him across the chest.

“Valkyrie.” She replied, glancing at Captain Marvel with a small grin.

Korg punched Thanos right across the face, “Oi! That’s what you get for killing our friends, you big bully! That one’s for Mink! I sure hope Thor hit you with the most painful lighting bolt you’ve ever been hit with! Well, actually, that doesn’t make much sense considering the chances of getting struck by lightning.”

“Wait, hold up, you guys know Thor?”

“Oh yeah! New Doug! And he joined our revolution! Still wish I had made more pamphlets though.” He gasped excitedly, “Wait, do you know him too?”

“Yeah, he’s one of the survivors too.” Captain Marvel explained.

Valkyrie froze, shocked, then turned to face her, “Thor’s alive?!”

Korg pumped his fist in the air, “Yes! What did I tell you, Valkyrie? He wasn’t going to get killed that easily!”

Captain Marvel fired an energy blast at Thanos and turned to face Valkyrie, her gaze intense, “Can we trust you?”

Valkyrie grinned back mischievously, “I think that’s entirely up to you.”

A daring look flickered across her face. The four surround the Mad Titan. Valkyrie skillfully swung her sword and sliced at him. Korg threw a punch at him, but Thanos caught his fist and threw him over his shoulder. Kamala tripped him with her embiggened foot as Captain Marvel swiftly kicked him in the chest, energy circulating her body. Thanos then sent the rocky debris flying up off the ground that surrounded them.

“You know what? That’s it!” Kamala cried furiously, throwing her hair back behind her shoulders, “I’m letting my inner fangirl out on you!”

She ferociously attacked him in a series of punches and kicks, while shouting, “This one’s for Spider-Man! This one’s for Wasp! This one’s for Vision! This one’s for Scarlet Witch! This one’s for Winter Solider! This one’s for Falcon! This one’s for Black Panther! This one’s for Hawkeye!”

Thanos reached for her ankle, but Captain Marvel was faster and grabbed her by the forearm, pulling her upward.

“So… what’s this called?” She asked, regaining her grip on Kamala as she put her arm her, “A ‘Marvel’ team up? Cause we both have marvel in the name?”

Kamala let out a gasp of excitement, “Absolutely!”

She smiled, and they rushed to the ground; Captain Marvel, blazing fist first and Kamala, embiggened foot first. They hit Thanos and the ground with such force, dust came rising up all around them. As the dust settled, Kamala stood determinedly by Captain Marvel, Valkyrie, and Korg as the Mad Titan rose to his feet.

A thin stream of purple blood trickled down his nose. The same shade of purple was smeared across Captain Marvel’s knuckles.

He lightly wiped the blood from his nose with his thumb.

“Damn!” Valkyrie grinned at her.

Captain Marvel took another step towards him, “Don’t be surprised when you watch your world crumble, just like you crumbled ours. Cause you’re in for one hell of an endgame.”

The radiant, blazing light from her fists spread all throughout her body, and her eyes glowed a warm, sunset orange.

Thanos worn an unreadable expression as he looked down at the Infinity Gauntlet. The Soul Stone was giving off an orange light, brighter than all the others.

The corners of his mouth curved slightly upward, “Until then…”

Carol lurched at him, teeth clenched, as he stepped backwards into a swirling, blue portal. She hit the ground as the portal disappeared and the energy slowly faded.

“Where did he go?” Korg asked in disbelief.

“Quantum Realm.” Captain Marvel sighed, “He found them.”

Valkyrie raised a brow, “Found who?”

“The Avengers.” Kamala explained, “They went back through time to get the Infinity Stones before Thanos and bring them back to the future so we can counteract the Gauntlet’s power.”

“Oi, it sounds like you’re on your way to a fully successful revolution!” Korg commented happily, “Now all you need are some pamphlets!”

Kamala sat down next to Captain Marvel, “So, what now?”

She looked at Kamala with a sad smile, “We gotta get back to Earth to warn them.”

Kamala nodded, “Don’t worry, we’ll be ready for him! Dude, he was ready to wet himself when you started doing the glowy thing! He’s about to get his purple alien butt kicked!”

Captain Marvel laughed, turning to Korg and Valkyrie, “You coming with us?”

Valkyrie shrugged, smirking, while Korg shouted excitedly, “Yes! And the revolution resumes!”

As they made their way back to the ship, Captain Marvel nudged Kamala, “You did good, Kiddo. There aren’t many people who would’ve even done it. And I don’t think I have the legal authority to do this, but if I were Captain America or Iron Man, I would officially declare you an Avenger.”

“Woah.” She breathed, “I’m sorry. Wow. I just, if I hadn’t just gotten slammed into the ground and had the bruise on my side to prove it, I would think I’m dreaming because Captain Marvel just told me I should be an Avenger! Oh my gosh! The fact that we just got attacked by a big purple alien with a magic glove makes this is the weirdest best day of my life!”

“Yeah,” Captain Marvel gave a light laugh and shook her head, “I would say that’s about as weird as it gets, but then another threat would come along and prove me wrong.”

“Yeah,” Kamala paused, “So, you know, when all this is over, are you gonna stay on Earth, or…”

She shrugged, “I don’t know.” She held up her beeper, “I promised to come back for emergencies, so when this is over, it’ll probably be more beneficial for everyone if I don’t.”

Kamala’s face fell, “Well…” She sighed, “There’s always gonna be trouble there, but as long as you got someone you care about, you’ve got someone to avenge.”

“Now, I’m no Avenger. I’m not too great with teams. But you have a fair point. So, who’s your person? Or persons?”

Kamala looked off thoughtfully for a moment before replying, “My best friends, Bruno and Nakia. He’s a jerk, but a lovable one, sometimes. And Nakia and I have known each other since, like, the dawn of time. They’ve always stood up for me and get the kind of weird stuff that goes on in my life. They’re the ones I miss the most.” She tugged at her scarf a little as they stepped over a branch, “Who’s your person? Or people?”

She laughed lightly, “Well, you know Maria. And then there’s Monica. And of course, there’s Fury.”

“Wait, Nick Fury? Eye patch, trench coat?”

“God, is he going through a pirate phase or something? Yeah, he’s one of my best, and probably only, friends. We stopped a Kree attack on Earth. Does he wear the eye patch over his bad eye?”

Kamala blinked, “Well, yeah. It’s covered in weird scratches and he won’t tell anyone-,”

Captain Marvel nearly doubled over laughing.

“What is it?”

“Nothing! Nothing!” She cried, wiping her eyes, “Hey, does this person have to be a human?”

“No, I guess not.”

She grinned, “Ok, then it’s one hundred percent Goose.”

“Goose?”

“Yeah, he’s a Flerken cat.”

Kamala looked as if she were processing this, “So, it that a Top Gun reference?”

She gasped, “No, not intentionally, but that’s perfect!”

Kamala grinned as the spaceship came into view.

“You ready to save the universe, Kid?”

She thought about Bruno and Nakia, her family, her town, and all the fallen Avengers, “Born ready.”


	17. It's not about facts, it's about family

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Scott finds Stephen Strange in the quantum realm again, but they're too late: Thanos has already found them.

“So, this is it.”

“Yeah.”

“You'd think with all this time to prepare, I'd be more ready.”

Scott shrugged, “Well, going subatomic isn't something you can prepare for. It kind of, melts your mind.”

“I mean, seeing my Mom again. What if she's a completely different person?”

“Yeah, like George Washington?”

Hope lightly laughed, shaking her head, “I'm serious, Scott.”

He grinned, “Or, George Jefferson?”

“What if she's forgotten about me?”

“Hey,” Her cool, hazel eyes met his, “When I was in prison... The only thing that got me through was Cassie. I could've been locked up for 100 years. I never would've forgotten her. I know your Mom is counting the minutes until she can see you again.”

Hope smiled shyly, “Thank you.”

A faint impulse sent Scott’s hand slowly reaching for her’s. Hope wore a hesitant glare before taking his hand, and her expression softened a little as she squeezed it.

Whenever he was around her, the lighthearted, fluttering feeling in his chest always seemed to take over. He was well aware that he was head over heels, accidently, extraordinarily, tremendously, madly in love with her, and cursed himself knowing the next thing to come out of his mouth was guaranteed to be something stupid.

“Hope, I…”

All the sudden, his hand closed on emptiness. Light gray ashes floated in the air in between them. Hope was slowly crumbling into dust.

“Hope!” Scott cried helplessly, for there was nothing he could do.

Hope looked down at her disintegrated arm in horror, “Oh my god.” She breathed, “Oh my god.”

He felt his throat tighten, “No!” Scott choked, grasping her in his arms.

Hot turns burned his eyes as he held onto her before she was gone forever. He felt a light pat on his back and her breath whistled faintly in his ear.

“Go get 'em, Princess.” She whispered.

And his world crumbled to the ground with her ashes.

“Hope.” Tears began streaming down his face. His partner was gone. His daughter was gone. He wasn’t sure how much more of this he could take.

He sank onto his knees, the last few ashes fluttered to the ground. The same ashes that covered his gloves.

“Scott.”

The voice must’ve belonged to Hank.

“I’m sorry.” Scott replied, his voice thin, “I didn’t think…”

Hope Van Dyne, the strongest, fiercest, bravest, smartest person he knew died by the swift action that ended the lives of half of everyone else in the universe. It wasn’t right. It wasn’t right that millions of others died like this and one being made the decision for all of them.

“Scott.”

“I’m sorry!” He sobbed, burring his face in his hands, “I’m so sorry. I lost her. She’s, she’s gone. Hank, I, I need her. I wish she were here. I don’t think I can do this without her; I’m not strong enough. Why did she have to die? It’s not right! Thanos made the choice for everyone in the universe! She should have been the one to live. She would have kicked Thanos right in the-,”

“Scott!”

The voice wasn’t Hank’s. Someone had grabbed him and was shaking him by the shoulders.

His eyes snapped open and found himself on his back. As he sat upright, he felt the grip on his shoulders release. The grievous face of Stephen Strange glanced back at him. He was in the quantum realm again, however, it looked different than he remembered. They were deeper in than he had ever been before. It almost looked like a new world, slightly resembling a city, had unfolded around them. The warm, vibrant colors of the quantum realm spread around them. And Scott became conscious of the fact that he was…

Floating?

He glanced down and saw his own body lying on the ground.

“Oh my god!” He nearly screamed, panic rising in his voice, “What happened to me?! I’m, I’m on the ground…” He shook his head, “But I’m here… I’m dead, aren’t I? Oh my god I’m dead! You’re, you’re dead too!” He stuttered pointing at Stephen.

He dared look at his hand, noticing that it was nearly translucent and giving off a faint, dry orange glow, like Stephen. He didn’t feel anything.

“Oh my god!” He cried again, grasping his own hand, “Why is it glowing?! It didn’t used to do that!”

“Scott, try to calm down.”

Scott laughed nervously, “Yeah, ok, sure. I don’t remember it though. You know, dying. Did it hurt, cause I seriously don’t remember, and that seems like something I would remember. Oh my god Stephen, I’m really freaking out!”

He rolled his eyes, “Relax, you’re not dead. I’ve detached your astral form from your physical form.”

Scott stared at him blankly, “I’m sorry, you huh did what now?”

Stephen furrowed his brow, “I detached your astral form from your physical form. I just said that.”

He nodded slowly, “Uh huh. That’s what I thought you said and none of that sounds good.”

“You’ll be fine.” Stephen shrugged, then muttered, “Probably.”

He shuddered, “Yeah, that’s reassuring.” Scott commented sarcastically.

“Alright, we haven’t got a moment to lose. Thanos will find us any second.” He started, setting off in the opposite direction.

Scott looked down at his body nervously, “So, uh, are we just gonna leave that there?” Stephen didn’t respond, “Alright then.”

He followed the sorcerer whose lively red cloak billowed out behind him. His hair was jet black, his skin pale, and his focused, icy green eyes twinkled. He stopped at a flickering vortex. It looked nothing like a time vortex, for its ring was sky blue with a deep black center and it faded in and out.

“You need to find Steve and Tony and the moment you do, you need to get out of here.” Stephen informed him, “You won’t stand a chance if you fight him here. This realm is strongly connected to the soul stone, not to mention he has the power to manipulate reality. You’re vulnerable since he’s already found you, pulling you out of the time vortex you were currently in, and all three of you are vital to the success of this mission.” He paused, “Where’s Carol at this exact moment?”

“She went to fight Thanos at the planet whose name I can’t remember with the kid. Kamala-,”

“Khan. Yes, the kid has a future. Things are still going according to plan.”

“Yeah, so, you mind telling anyone this plan?”

All the sudden, the vortex erupted in an intense blue light, and the Mad Titan emerged from it.

“There’s no time!” Stephen turned to Scott, panicked, “Avengers Compound! Look for my signal!”

“What about it? What signal? Strange!”

He felt like he had been hit over the head. His skull screamed in agony as his teeth clenched and his eyes forced shut. Feeling and awareness shocked his body. He turned over and slowly opened his eyes, digging his fists into the ground and pushing himself upwards. His body was visible again and no longer glowing. He stood upright and turned around, surrounded by the bright colors and oddity of the quantum realm.

“Steve! Tony!” He cried, taking off running, the footprints he left behind glowing a lively green.

All the sudden, he was violently pulled back by his shoulders, and a firm, strong hand clamped over his mouth. He balled his hands into fists as he attempted to protest, but he couldn’t see his target. His arms were pinned to his sides and he was being slowly brought down to his knees as he screamed into the hand over his mouth.

“Scott! Shut up! He’s going to hear us.” Tony whispered annoyedly, releasing him, “So, Steve’s gonna take his hand away now and you’re gonna stop screaming. Deal?”

Scott nodded as the hand left his mouth.

“You okay?” Steve whispered to him concernedly.

He let out a shaky breath and nodded again.

Tony sighed, glancing at Scott’s face, “Sorry bout that. So far, our only advantage is the element of surprise.”

“No! We can’t fight him. Not yet, anyways. I saw Strange again! Thanos threw us out of the time vortex. We have to go!” Scott panicked.

“Woah, slow down. You saw the wizard again? That’s not-,” Tony froze.

Scott looked over his shoulder to see what Tony was glaring so hatefully at. A giant, purple silhouette was approaching them.

“We gotta go! Now!” Scott exclaimed, leaping to his feet.

But Thanos wasn’t alone. A smaller figure was beside him, almost being dragged along. He was suddenly filled with great dread.

“Mr. Stark…” The kid choked; his voice raspy.

His shaggy brunette hair was tangled and messy. Thanos was now holding him by his head, his body nearly limp. The metallic suit he worn was covered in dust, making the spider stretching across his torso barely visible. His warm, cocoa colored eyes were fearful.

Tony was taken aback as Thanos’s expression remained unreadable. Scott’s heart wrenched, realizing that this was the kid from Germany, Tony’s kid, and he knew exactly what it would feel like if the same thing were to happen to Cassie…

Steve glanced sideways at Tony, “Tony…”

“Let him go!” An infuriated Tony roared, blasting the Mad Titan to hell.

“Tony!” Steve exclaimed, grabbing him firmly in an attempt to stop him.

However, Tony furiously threw him to the ground. As he did, Scott noticed a devilish smile peak through the Mad Titan’s face.

“Guys! Stop! This is what he wants!” Scott cried desperately.

But Tony continued to fire rapidly, devastating blasts at him. Thanos held the kid out in front of him and held his hand with the gauntlet outstretched. Silent tears streamed down Tony’s face.

“The stone, Stark.” Thanos’s voice low and menacing.

The kid’s breaths were becoming shorter and shallower, “Don’t do it, Mr. Stark.”

A tortured look settled on Tony’s face. He raised his repulsor in line with Thanos’s head but hesitated to blast it. Heartache tugged at Scott as he looked helplessly from Tony to the kid.

“Put. Him. Down.” He growled, “And I’ll give you the damn stone.”

“Tony! Don’t you dare!” Steve charged at him.

Thanos tossed the kid to the side, however, Tony instead fired a single, shocking blast that impacted him in the throat.

“Don’t ever mess with my kid again!” Tony roared, a dozen missiles flying from his suit, all targeted on Thanos.

A large, slick blade formed on his forearm as he sliced at the Mad Titan. A bulging hammer then formed on his other arm and he swung at Thanos violently.

However, he tore Tony from the air as he flew past. Steve then sliced him across the chest with his shield, leaving behind a thin, faint trail.

Seeing as the original plan of escaping immediately was not going to happen, Scott ran straight for the chaos.

All the sudden, a sonic blast came from behind Thanos, causing him to release Tony. He whipped back around to face him but Thanos had already regained the kid.

“You took all their lives! You took everything!” Tony exclaimed in anguish.

“In order to do something as monumental as bring about world peace, you must be ready to pay whatever the price. The universe has already begun to flourish and soon, climate and population control will be restored, and it will have no memory of starvation or poverty.” The Mad Titan explained both thoughtfully and grimly.

“To us, it’s not about facts. It’s about family!”

It took Scott a moment to realize that the words came from him, but by then he was already racing towards the Mad Titan. It might’ve been the stupidest thing he could have done, that was mostly the area were his actions lay anyways, but he figured if he were lucky, then it wouldn’t be too far from brave. And when taking on an all-powerful alien who murdered half the universe, that was a hard thing to be.

However, as he reached for the kid, the kid vanished in a wisp of bubbles.

“Oh God.”

The entire realm began to shift. Thanos was drastically altering reality.

“You killed him!” Tony cried, trying shake off Steve, who was holding him back.

Scott noticed a vibrant green flash out of the corner of his eye. It looked like a time vortex; however, it was almost too convenient that one would show right then and there.

“I sure hope this is the ‘signal’ you were talking about, Stephen.” Scott muttered to himself.

He turned around and grabbed Steve and Tony by the arm, “We gotta go!”

The three of them were then pulled into the time vortex.


	18. Emotional Support Princess

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Nebula and Shuri find the Ancient One in search of the time stone.

Nebula pulled the coffee brown burlap further over her shoulders. A cold drizzle fell from the crying, grey sky and kissed her skin. She lightly walked through the small puddles on the cobblestone road. Few people lurked outside in the gloomy atmosphere. Their heads turned as the two passed.

Shuri’s Black Panther suit had retracted into the inconspicuous, silver necklace around her neck, revealing casual, soft, pale clothes underneath. She held out her wrist in between them as a holographic image protect from her bracelet.

“I’ve picked up a ton of interdimensional activity from this location.” Shuri explained, “This is our best bet of where the time stone is located.”

She nodded. A soft breeze kicked up. After a long silence, Nebula spoke again.

“So, do you go by ‘Princess,’ or something.”

Shuri smiled a little, “Oh God no. Just Shuri.”

“Cool.” Another silence, “Hey, uh,” She caught Shuri glancing at her, “I’m really sorry. About your brother. That’s horrible.”

She sighed, closing her eyes, “Yeah, it’s alright.” She bit her lip, “It’s just, I miss him, you know? I mean, I’ve thought he was dead before, but this time he’s _gone_. We were already close, but we had so much time left together. And the time I need him the most, he’s not here, he’s not anywhere. He’s wherever you go when you die. You know what it’s like when you look back, and you wish you had known that that was the last time you were going to see that person so you could’ve said everything you needed to say, and now you would do anything just to see them one last time?”

Nebula did. She knew exactly what that was like. Gamora.

“What would you say?”

“I don’t know what to do. Please, T’Challa, come home.” She shook her head, “It’s dumb, I know.”

“I don’t think it’s dumb at all.”

Shuri gave a sad smile. The few passbyers who remained outside drifted past, shielding themselves with brightly colored umbrellas.

“What about you?”

Nebula blinked in confusion at her question, “What about me?”

“Pain. Hurt. It’s written all over your face.”

She crossed her arms over her chest, pulling the burlap further, “You’re sixteen, right?”

Shuri shrugged, “Sixteen years old, nine months, and twelve days. Nearly seventeen.”

“You act a lot older than that.”

She sighed, “Yeah, well, sometimes I have too. So…” She continued, “Did you lose a family member too? Or a friend?”

“I’ve got a sister.” Nebula hesitated, “Had a sister. We weren’t close like you and your brother, but we were just starting to make up for lost time. But he killed her. Our father, he took us, enslaved us, then in his desperate attempt to finally undo reality to fit his image, he traded her soul for the soul stone.” She smiled sadly, “Killed her band of dorks too. All gone, except for Rocket.”

“Nebula…”

Nebula gave a frustrated sigh, “That’s how this works. They say a soul for a soul, but what soul? He doesn’t have one! It then turns into a battle for life and he still has that to lose. No one wanted to die. Why should Gamora, or anyone else he murdered or annihilated be any different? She didn’t want to die!” Her hands balled into fists, “So he’s gonna have to.”

“We have to try.” Shuri agreed, “For everyone taken.”

They stopped at a beige, wooden door. Nebula reached for the bronze knob, water droplets rolling off her metal arm.

Shuri studied her, “I can give you an upgrade, if you like.”

Nebula shook her head, “I’m fine, thank you.”

Shuri took her arm, and Nebula sighed as she lifted the burlap off her shoulder.

“Nebula…” She started concernedly, “Your prosthetic parts aren’t installed correctly. None of them are.” She rubbed her fingers together, “They’re also made of cadmium, and they’ll cause you a great deal of pain unless I treat them.”

Nebula let out a humorless laugh, “I know. Thanos has made sure of that for as long as I can remember.”

Shuri looked up at her, horrified, “Thanos did this to you?”

She smiled sadly, “You seem surprised.”

“I know, it’s just…” She sighed, “I just thought, even the Mad Titan loves his kids.”

“He’s not my father. Gamora understood, and I finally realized she was all the family I needed. I’m going to kill him for her.”

Shuri wrapped her arms around Nebula and gave her a light squeeze.

“Uh… What are you doing? Are you attacking me?” Nebula asked inquisitively.

She smiled, “No, I’m hugging you. I thought you could use one.”

Nebula patted her on the back. She knew that Shuri could use one too. When it comes down to the end, family is forever. It doesn’t matter if you’re related, because when you love someone as much as you love a brother or sister, losing them will leave the deepest kind of scar you can imagen. She knew exactly what that was like for her; she was living it too.

“Let’s get your brother back.” Nebula encouraged determinedly.

Shuri grinned, “And your sister!”

Nebula smiled sadly, deciding not to state the unlikeliness of being able to redeem her sister to avoid crushing the young girl’s optimism.

She turned the knob, but the door didn’t budge.

“Here, I got it.”

Shuri inserted a small, black, circular device in the keyhole. She twisted the knob and eased the door open. Nebula gripped her batons by her sides and Shuri’s suit grew over her body as they stalked down the dim hallway.

The hallway led them to a wide, gloomy courtyard. It was eerie silent, and a chill wind carried droplets of water so soft that they rose slightly off the ground once they hit it before settling into puddles on the pavement.

“How much you wanna bet that the time stone is on some sort of pedestal thing, completely unprotected?” Shuri asked in a hushed, humorous tone.

Nebula shrugged, “I mean, that’s exactly how it was when Quill got the power stone the first time. But there’s gotta be some sort of magic or something protecting it.”

“Well, magic is just science we don’t understand yet.” Shuri grinned confidently.

A gate screeched on the opposite end of the courtyard. Nebula and Shuri exchanged a glance and approached it cautiously. A library unfolded on the other side of the gate, the hundreds of books on the cage-like selves stared at them as they walked past. Dust was suspended in the air, adding to the eerie gloom. The room was dim except for green glow of the time stone in its center.

And sure enough, it was on a pedestal. Unprotected.

A good-humored smirk spread across Shuri’s face, “Told you so.”

Nebula rolled her eyes at Shuri’s childish remark. Shuri scanned the pedestal with the time stone with a holographic projection. The device on her wrist beeped.

“That’s weird…” She muttered as a portal opened beneath her feet and she vanished.

“Shuri!” Nebula called in a hushed whisper.

She whipped around at the sound of faint footsteps behind her. She held her batons in front her in an ‘X’ position, ready to attack.

“What brings you to Kamar-Taj, daughter of Thanos?” A soft, but powerful voice carried through the library.

“I am not his daughter.” Nebula snarled, angrily.

“Ah, yes. Of course not, biologically.”

“Alright, Lady, listen up.” Nebula declared, turning on her spot, “I don’t know who you are and why you know so much about my personal life, but if you would kindly return my emotional support princess, we’ll take what we came here for and be on our way.”

“I’m afraid I cannot let you do that.”

“Yeah, well…” Nebula replied gruffly, “I wasn’t exactly asking for permission.”

She leapt out of the way before she could fall through the portal that opened beneath her feet. She slid across the floor and looked up to find a figure in all yellow, hood pulled over her face, approached her with glowing orange fans generated by magic by her sides. Nebula charged at her; batons drawn by her side.

She was an incredibly skilled fighter. She blocked Nebula’s attacks with her fans. Nebula slipped underneath her and tripped her, slicing at her legs with her batons.

“Wouldn’t change your mind if I said the fate of the universe depends on it?” Nebula whirled around and swung at her with her baton.

She shook her head and ran up the wall, flying over Nebula and striking from behind.

Nebula groaned and pushed herself of the ground, “Magic is so annoying.”

She rolled across the ground as the figure sliced at her on the ground with a glowing orange whip.

“Hey, you got a name?” Nebula held her batons in an ‘X’ in front of her face to block the whip.

A thin smile grew across her face, her eyes still covered by the flowing, yellow cloak, “I’m the Ancient One.”

She shrugged, “That’s cool. I’m Nebula.”

Nebula looked beyond the Ancient One’s shoulder. A small, green vortex sparked to life. The Ancient One followed her gaze and frowned. All the sudden, the vortex erupted and began to pull the surrounding atmosphere into it. The Ancient One projected a glowing orange shield, placed a firm arm over her, and prevented them for being pulled inside.

Shuri emerged from it as the vortex collapsed in on itself. She stood, staring down the Ancient One determinedly. Her mask grew over her face and the outlines of her suit glowed a bright, daring, neon green.

The Ancient One tilted her head, “You are no sorcerer.”

She shrugged, “Maybe not. But what you like to call magic, I like to call quantum physics.”

She hit the ground and as she did, a green blast erupted from her suit causing them to fly backwards. Nebula took the opportunity to catch the Ancient One off guard as she grabbed her and held a baton up to her throat. However, she grabbed Nebula’s wrist and hurled her over her shoulder.

Shuri leaped through the air and impacted the Ancient One’s shield with her claws. Orange sparks flew through the air.

“Curious.” The Ancient One muttered, “You escaped the Eternal Dimension.”

“Yeah, well, the only reason that dimension was ‘eternal’ was the plethora of quantum energy congested inside its atmosphere.” She grinned, “I rewired my quantum placement device to absorb its energy and travel through the dimensional rift back to this timestream.”

Nebula struck the Ancient One from behind. She defended herself as Shuri and Nebula attacked from both sides. She kicked Shuri in the chest, however, she leapt back with twice the force, a lime green blast erupting from her suit.

Shuri kicked the Ancient One in the side and as she fell towards Nebula, Nebula swiped across her face with her baton.

With a burst of radiant magical energy, the Ancient One created a bright orange force field that emitted a force that trust them backwards. The room around them tilted sideways and they slid across the floor.

Nebula grabbed hold of the edge of a bookcase and Shuri’s arm with her other hand. Nebula gritted her teeth as the Ancient One opened a portal beneath them, threating to consume them. She looked down at Shuri, who nodded. In one swift motion, Nebula flung Shuri up to the top of the bookcase and pulled herself up after her. They jumped across from bookcase to bookcase and finally lunged at the Ancient One with claws and batons.

However, she opened another portal in front of them that emptied out on the ceiling. She caught them in an orange haze as gravity had begun to take effect. Even though she could only see the bottom half of her face, Nebula could tell the Ancient One was contemplating something.

“Let me ask you this.” She began both calmly and sternly, “What master do you serve?”

Nebula heard Shuri snicker next to her, “What ‘master’ do I serve? What am I supposed to say, Jesus?”

Nebula rolled her eyes, shaking her head.

“God.” She heard the Ancient One mutter under her breath, “Teenagers.”

“I mean, one time I cured a friend of my brother’s, and he sure looked a lot like Jesus.”

The Ancient One sighed, “Why do you yearn the time stone? Do you intend to bring it to the feet of Thanos?”

“No!” Nebula exclaimed, maybe a little too harshly, “We’re here to take it before he ever finds it. To make sure he never wipes out half the universe!”

A small gasp escaped the Ancient One as the room returned to normal and she released her suspension of Shuri and Nebula.

“From whatever realm you’ve come from…” She began worriedly, “Has he done it? Has he wiped half of life from existence?”

Shuri nodded grimly.

“Stephen Strange.” Nebula realized, “Where is he?”

The Ancient One shook her head, “I’m afraid you’re five years too early.”

“How could he help us know?” Shuri asked curiously, “He’s dead, remember?”

“He had the time stone when he fought Thanos on Titan and traded it to save Tony’s life.” Nebula recalled, her hands instinctively balling into fists.

“He did what?!” The Ancient One exclaimed, ripping back her hood. She pressed a hand to her forehead, “No… that can’t be right.”

She had soft blue eyes and she ran a hand over her smooth head.

“He took an oath, well, he will take an oath. Why would he give it up?”

Shuri’s mask faded, “I wish we knew.”

“One out of 14,000,605.” Nebula muttered.

The Ancient One turned to her, “What did you say?”

“That’s what he said, or at least, that’s what Tony had explained. Strange saw 14,000,605 different outcomes of our war with the Infinity Stones and we only succeeded in one.”

“Those aren’t… great odds.” Shuri agreed.

The Ancient One shook her head, “They’re not. It’s also a code.”

She extended her arm and the glowing green Infinity Stone materialized in her outstretched hand. She grasped it lightly between the tips of her fingers.

“Strange better be right.” She muttered, “This means your universe, along with the others you’ve collected the other Infinity Stones from, are in grave danger. However…” She hesitated, “If you fail, Thanos’s reality will spread across the multiverse. I need also remind you that we’re going to need the time stone back.”

Shuri nodded, “After we combine all the Infinity Stones, we’ll use them to send them all back.”

Nebula saw trust in the Ancient One’s eyes. She took Shuri’s hand and placed the stone into her armband. Shuri flinched a little then nodded reassuringly to the Ancient One who was studying her.

“Good luck.” She gave a soft smile before vanishing into the bright orange portal behind her.

Shuri glanced sideways at Nebula and waved her wrist, “Gotta catch them all.”

Nebula rolled her eyes, “That’s enough pop culture references out of you.”

“Cmon.” Shuri nudged her in the ribs, “I seriously haven’t made that many this trip.”

“That’s so sad Alexa play Despacito.” Nebula replied without glancing at her.

Shuri stared at her in a state of awe, “But… but… how?”

Nebula wore a satisfied smirk before activating her armband to return home.


	19. Whatever it Takes

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Natasha and Clint reunite and set off with Wong to find the soul stone.

“Clint?”

Clint turned his head at the sound of her voice. His heart fell to the bottom of his chest. Pain clenched his throat and he knew he wasn’t ready.

“Hey, Nat.” He managed, fighting back stinging tears.

The rain now seemed to pour around them. The cool water rolled down his skin. His sword felt like a weight in his hand and Wong gave him a sad smile.

“I told you so.” Wong began, turning to Natasha after an abnormally long silence, “He’s an emotional wreck.”

Clint rolled his eyes, “Thanks Wong.”

“So, you two know each other.” Her expression was unreadable.

Wong exchanged a glance with Clint, who nodded.

“Yeah, you probably already know S.HE.I.L.D.’s a thing again. They needed help and busted me out of house arrest a little early… probably the worst decision I ever made.” His voice broke a little.

He remembered confronting Laura about the issue. God, he promised no more surprises. But there were always going to be more surprises. He didn’t know what kind of a reaction to expect from her after the last two years without the threat of psychopathic gods, alien armies, or monstrous A.I.s looming over them. They had spent so much loss time together and he had even taught Lila how to shoot with a bow.

But what did she say?

“Go get ‘em, Hawkeye.”

And what did that cost?

“Then the decimation happened.” He continued, “Fury was gone, along with half of everyone else. Along with…” He shook his head, not finishing his thought, “Anyways, Wong showed up through his portal thing, explained what the hell had just happened, needed help with neutralizing the terrorist organizations that decided to spring up in the middle of the chaos, and so we made a quick stop at my place to pick up some gear, and… yeah. Now we’re here. Then after we took down a couple of bombers and serial killers, I went…”

He thought about the people he murdered, and most disturbingly of all how satisfying it felt. He thought about ditching Wong, ignoring him and killing everyone involved anyways. It wasn’t like he hadn’t killed people before, and it was funny how this made more of an impact on him than being an assassin ever did. They got to live, and the people he cared about, the people who deserved to live a hundred times more than they did, didn’t. That was their goal though, wasn’t it? To kill the people Thanos didn’t solely because they got to _live_? Maybe that made him a terrorist too.

“Rogue.” He finished grimly.

He noticed Wong studying him, his expression soft. Maybe he had forgiven him, but Clint wasn’t so sure he was ready to forgive himself.

Every ounce of common sense told him he should have taken off running, but instead, he took a step closer. As he did, Natasha drew her gun. Her expression turned as hard as stone and her blue-green eyes stared straight through him. A sharp pang tugged at his heart. Natasha was the only one left who he had thought to be dead and she right now most likely wanted to kill him. And he quite honestly didn’t blame her.

Wong cleared his throat, “This is awkward.” He muttered.

Natasha gave a frustrated sigh and dropped her gun to her side, “Dammit Clint! I thought you were dead!”

Clint shifted on his spot, taking in a small breath. Death was such a funny concept nowadays.

“Yeah…” He sighed, trailing off to collect his thoughts, “I’m sorry.”

And he really meant it. Maybe more than he ever had in his life.

Her expression softened a little, almost as if she was reading all the thoughts he had that he didn’t know how to put into words. There was nothing that really needed to be said because he knew that _she_ knew. She had always been understanding, especially of him; they were best friends after all.

This time she took a step forward.

“I know.”

“No, Nat…” Clint he ran his hand through his hair, “I’m really sorry. I’m sorry I screwed up. I’m sorry I didn’t contact you guys. I’m sorry I wasn’t there. I’m sorry I’ve become…” He gestured to his suit, “This!”

His arms slowly fell to his sides. The heavy pour of the rain began to lighten. Natasha nodded slowly.

“Whatever it is… whatever you did, or think you did.” A ghost of a smile flickered across her face, “I bet it’s nothing as bad as anything I’ve done.”

He probably looked like a child, but right now he didn’t care. He ran to Natasha and hugged her. Tears swelled in his eyes and he felt her arms surround him, hugging him back.

“Alright, alright.” She playfully pat him on the back, then pulled back and placed her hands on his shoulders, “Nice hair, by the way. Really embracing the whole ‘hawk’ thing now.”

“How ironic, I guess you’re illegally blonde now.” He commented on her faded blonde hair.

“Seriously, you shaved off seventy five percent of your head!”

“Is that the way you refer to a mohawk?”

“Looks who’s being the edgy one now.”

“Uh… says the person with all of the Nirvana CDs!”

Wong shrugged, “Beyoncé is better.”

A mischievous grin spread across Clint’s face, “You wanna know who’s better than both Nirvana and Beyoncé? Fall Out Boy!”

“What are you, twenty-two?”

“Yeah! Do not insult my wife!” Wong crossed his arms.

Natasha laughed, “Ha! Yes!”

“Wait… Natasha, how is Nirvana your wife? They’re a band!”

“Wong and I was referring to Beyoncé, and you of all people know I have many wives.”

“You’re so weird.”

“No weirder than you!” Natasha countered, laughing with a wide grin.

Clint found himself grinning too.

The blonde in her hair looked even more faded as the final downpour fell and died down, the blonde dripping and rolling down her face with it. He also noticed the blonde stain washing away on his shoulder.

“Ha! Temporary dye! That’s so you!” He teased and Natasha punched him in the shoulder.

“Yeah, well it helps when you’re on the run and wanted in multiple countries.” She sighed, “You know what? Screw it! Do you have a towel or something?”

Wong opened a portal beside her, and she reached in and pulled out a navy-blue towel.

“Thanks Wong.” She grinned, rubbing away the blonde.

Wong gave a soft smile back, “There is something we must do.”

Natasha placed the towel back through the portal. Her fiery red hair bounced at her shoulders.

“At this moment, your friends and allies are collecting the Infinity Stones from different timestreams.” Wong explained, an image of what he was describing appeared between them formed by his magic, “Their combined power will counteract those that Thanos has collected from this timestream. They have the locations of all the stones except one…” The orange stone shined brighter than the others and grew larger, “The Soul Stone.”

“And you know where it is?” Clint asked curiously.

Wong nodded as the image changed to a tall, gloomy mountain, “Vormir.”

Natasha clapped her hands together, “Great, then let’s go get it.”

“I can open an exterior quantum vortex to retrieve it from an alternate timestream.” He explained, “However, at Kamar-Taj, we were informed that a great price must be paid in exchange for the stone.”

Natasha exchanged a knowing glance with Clint and nodded, “Whatever it takes.”

Glowing green discs appeared around Wong’s hands as he flicked his wrists and a portal opened up behind them. He gasped, collapsing to the ground and as he did, the portal began to slowly close in on itself.

“Wong!” Clint cried, rushing to his side and scooping him up.

“Come on!” Natasha exclaimed, jumping through the portal and Clint barely made it through with Wong behind her before the portal fully collapsed in on itself.

He hit the ground with a thud. He groaned, siting up and rolling his aching shoulder. A harsh noise like static swarmed his head. He squinted as he tried to make out their dimly lit surroundings. That was a spiking chill and frostiness to the air around them.

Natasha was already up and kneeling beside Wong who appeared to just be stirring back to consciousness.

“You ok?”

Natasha nodded and Wong sat up, giving him a weak smile.

“Wong! You nearly killed yourself!”

“When meddling with the fabrics of time, if the time stone is not present the process with draw away from the essence of the sorcerer.” Wong replied, his voice thin, “I would not have been killed. I would have been reduced into exile in the quantum realm for eternity.”

“You realize that sounds worse right?” A look of increasing concern settled on Natasha’s face.

“Whatever it takes, right?” Wong wore an exhausted grin.

“Yeah, but we don’t trade lives.”

His face fell to a frown as he got to stand up, “You people need to just stick to one phrase.”

Clouds passed through them as Clint looked down from the top of the tall, majestic mountain they were on, “Is this Vormir?”

“No.” Wong continued on both sarcastically and mischievously, “This is Disneyland.”

Wong set off through the ominous cave ahead and Clint and Natasha shared a worried glance before following him. Clint had to admire his spirit, just as long as he didn’t get himself killed.

The further they ventured into the cave the further the dread in Clint’s chest rose. Something terrible was about to happen. His blood ran ice cold at the sight of a wispy, black hooded figure. It drifted over the ground and looked like a demon, inching closer to them by the second. Clint instinctively drew back an arrow and Natasha her batons.

“Natasha, daughter of Ivan. Clint, son of Edith. Wong, son of Kan.” It spoke with a grave voice.

Clint raised his brow, “Who are you?”

“Consider me a guide. To you, and to all who seek the Soul Stone.”

“Okay. You tell us where it is. Then we'll be on our way.” Natasha replied determinedly.

“If only it were that easy. What you seek lies in front of you… As does what you fear. The stone is down there. For two of you. For the other... In order to take the stone, you must lose that which you love. An everlasting exchange. A soul, for a soul.”

Clint caught a glimpse of his blood red face. Not so much as a face as a skull. His heart fell and shattered at the bottom of his chest. There was no way possible he was going to let anyone be sacrificed.

He turned to Natasha and Wong. They three huddled up in a circle.

“He’s lying.” Clint denied with gritted teeth, sneaking another glimpse of the hooded demon over his shoulder before turning back to the group.

Wong shook his head sadly, looking at the ground.

Natasha nodded in agreement, “This has to be that price Wong was talking about.”

Clint shuddered, refusing to believe it. Not wanting to believe it. He glanced back at the cliff. He wondered exactly how deep it was. It felt like that the ominous drop was waiting for him. He knew he would take the fall.

“Then I think we know who has to pay it.” Clint replied grimly.

Natasha’s eyes met his, “Yeah… I guess we do.”

As Natasha walked past him, her shoulder brushed his.

He smiled sadly, “I’m starting to think we’re referring to different people.”

“Me too.” She sighed.

Without thinking, he grabbed her by the hand and pulled her in for a hug. She lightly hugged him back. Their foreheads were pressed together, and hot tears stung his eyes.

“I’m sorry.” He whispered.

“Me too.” And with that she planted a quick kiss on his forehead before she took off running towards the edge of the cliff.

“Natasha! No!” Clint cried, chasing after her, “Don’t do this!”

He nearly caught up with her too, but she turned around and kicked him in the chest, sending him backwards.

“I’m sorry.”

Clint was determined not to let her die. He fired an explosive arrow that wedged into the ground at the edge of the cliff and exploded sending Natasha flying off to her side. He rushed to her and placed his bow firmly over her chest. Déjà vu of Germany flooded his mind.

“Please… Nat.”

“Clint, I’m not letting you die.”

Grasping onto the bow, she forced him off to her side. Clint tried to lurch after her, but Wong stood in between them.

“Stop! This won’t fix anything!”

Natasha broke free again and raced towards the edge. She leapt over the side and Clint saw her disappear. He let out a cry of anguish as he tore past Wong and jumped after her.

He fired an arrow attached to a rope that snuck in at the top. Natasha’s eyes widened when she saw Clint. He took her hand and wrapped the rope around her wrist. Then he placed the bow in her hand, closed her fingers around it, and let go.

The feeling of free falling briefly took over before he felt a hand close around his wrist. Natasha was grasping onto to him with her free hand.

“Nat.” His eyes met hers, “You’ve got to let me go.”

“No…” She tilted her head and the pained look in her eyes pained him, “No Clint I won’t do it.”

“Get the stone and make him pay!”

“Not without you!”

He squeezed her hand, “It’s ok.” He smiled sadly, tears streaming down his face, “I’ll always be with you.”

Natasha squeezed his hand back and then he let go. He heard her cry out in protest, calling his name, and he would give anything to go back with her. To go back home. But he was here now. He was falling to his death. He closed his eyes during his final moments, welcoming death. The words, ‘whatever it takes’, echoed throughout his head, followed by a certain memory. One he wanted to stay in forever.

He and Laura invited Nat over for the weekend after a long, lethal S.H.I.E.L.D. mission she had been in charge of. And as Cooper, Lila, and Nathaniel tackled ‘Aunt Natasha’ in the field in a heated game of ‘Good Cop Bad Cop’, Laura took his hand and together they watched the sunset.

That would be the last thing he saw after he hit the ground and his life flashed before his eyes. The impact shook throughout and shattered his spine, but the pain was short-lived. His body turned limp as he settled into the memory, and a white flash took the world away from him.

* * *

“Clint!”

Her own bloodcurdling scream echoed in her ears before her world disappeared in a flash of white light.

As she stirred back into consciousness, the words, ‘whatever it takes’, echoed throughout her head.

Natasha forced herself up and winced. The silence was painfully ringing. The cool water of the shallow pool she was in rolled off her skin. The water was calm and glassy like a mirror.

She unfolded her right hand that was balled in a fist. In the palm of her hand lied the warm, sunset orange soul stone.

She buried her face in her knees as she slightly sobbed and hot tears streamed down her face. Clint was gone. And he wasn’t coming back.

She felt a hand on her shoulder and looked up to find Wong. He smiled sadly down at her. She sighed, getting to her feet and putting her arm around him, giving him a small side hug.

“We’ll see him again.” Wong reassured her, “Someday.”

If only that were true. She returned a sad smile to his optimism.

“Let’s go.” She muttered, glancing down at her balled fist.

“Wait.” A powerful voice spoke from behind them.

Natasha turned to find a tall, green figure determinedly approaching them. The water rippled beneath her feet and the breeze kicked through her long, dark, magenta tipped hair. She wore dark leather and carried a long, glinting sword that she pointed in their direction.

“Who are you?”

Natasha drew her gun, “Who are you?”

She looked down at Natasha’s hand that was holding the stone that was also now glowing orange.

“You have the soul stone…”

“Yes…?”

“How?” She said more as a gasp.

Natasha’s pained expression seemed to clue her in enough on the answer.

“That’s impossible.” She muttered.

“Who are you?” Natasha, still grasping her gun, questioned, “And can we trust you?”

She sighed, “I am Gamora. And as long as you have a burning desire to kill Thanos, I would say yes.”

Natasha lowered her gun, “Cool. I’m Nat. And this is Wong.” She replied nonchalantly. Her name sounded familiar for some reason.

Gamora smiled, drawing back her sword.

Wong, however, raised his brow, “How did you get here?”

Her face hardened, “Thanos murdered me in order to retrieve the soul stone.” Her teeth gritted at the mention of his name.

Wong nodded slowly, “I suppose we ended up undoing your sacrifice by retrieving the stone ourselves before Thanos did in this timeline. So that would bring you back to life in our timeline because a different sacrifice was made.”

“Wait…” She paused, “How come you guys need the stone?”

Natasha and Wong exchanged a glance, “We need it to undo what he did.” She replied.

A gasp escaped Gamora as a horrified look crossed her face, “He actual did it.” She realized quietly, “He won.”

“Gamora!” Natasha exclaimed suddenly.

“Yes…?” Gamora titled her head in confusion.

“No, Gamora, your name… that’s why it sounded so familiar…” Natasha explained, “You’re the girl Nebula mentioned!”

Gamora froze, “Nebula… she’s alive?”

“Yeah. She’s helping us take down Thanos.”

“Was Quill with her? Or Drax? Or Mantis? Groot? Rocket?”

Natasha didn’t response right away and her heart wrenched as she watched the hope fade away from Gamora’s eyes, “Rocket was with her.”

Heartache was written all over her face as she bit her lip and nodded.

“Hey…” Natasha placed a hand on her shoulder as she looked up, “We’ve all lost. And yeah, it’s gonna hurt; it’ll probably always hurt. But the people you lost are never really _gone_. They’re still with you until you meet again. But until then, you have to protect what you’ve got left.”

She heard Wong mutter, “Let’s try this again,” under his breath.

“So… are you coming with us?”


	20. Smashing and Blowing Things Up

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Rhodey and Bruce (plus Hulk) team up to get the reality stone from the Collector.

“Welcome to the junkyard of the universe’s biggest hoarder.” Rhodey commented sarcastically.

Bruce nodded, glancing around and behind them anxiously. Normally, Rhodey would have punched him in the shoulder and told him to stop being so uptight, but he honestly didn’t blame Bruce considering everything that had happened so far.

“Let’s just find that stone and get out of here as fast as possible.” Bruce muttered quietly as he gave a nervous glance over his shoulder.

The question was, how the heck were they supposed to find the Reality Stone amongst everything else in this guy’s museum? The place was huge. Cases and displays reached the ceiling that was as high as one in a warehouse back on Earth. Most of them gave off a tinted blue light from the interior that possessed a vast collection of artifacts, alien tech, and…

Rhodey gasped as the creature moved.

“Oh my God.” He breathed, “Bruce!” He yelled in a whisper.

No response.

“Bruce!” He tried again, “There are living, breathing aliens in these things… Oh my God.”

He knew Nebula had mentioned this, but it was just a heck of a lot more disturbing to actually see it in person. And there were a lot of them too. A majority were sleeping, and a few were pacing back and forth in their cramped spaces.

Rhodey froze as he felt a pair of eyes on his back. He turned and in a particular case was a chocolate Labrador wearing a white spacesuit and helmet with a red star on his shoulder, reminding him of Bucky’s. He felt tilted his head at Rhodey, most likely making whining noises from inside the soundproof case. Rhodey took a step towards him and put his hand on the class.

“Hey Buddy.” He felt along the side of the case, “I’m gonna get you out of here.”

The glass was thick, but an impact at the edge would be enough to shatter it. However, the issue was not blowing up the dog or the entire building for that matter. He fired his repulsor at the edge creating a small crack and then wedged a small explosive from his suit in it.

“Rhodey!” Bruce cried, a look of relief settled on his face until he noticed the explosive, “Wait, what the heck?!”

The glass shattered from the explosion and the dog careful stepped over the broken glass.

“Thank you, kind sir.” He spoke without moving his mouth.

“Bruce…” Rhodey glanced at him, “You heard that, right?”

Bruce nodded slowly; his eyes wide.

Rhodey shrugged, “You wanna know what? If this had happened about ten years ago, I would have freaked that a dog was just talking to me, but now that I’ve met a talking racoon and tree, this actually doesn’t faze me.”

“Ah, you must be from planet C53, or as you call it, Earth. I hear animals don’t tend to talk on your world. I am Cosmo. I’m a telepath, as you could probably already tell.”

“That’s cool. I’m Rhodey, and this is Bruce.”

Bruce turned to him with a look of shock written across his face, “What the heck? What are you doing? You’re gonna get us caught!”

“Oh, come on! Like you wouldn’t do the same thing! He was looking at me with those big brown puppy dog eyes!”

“Ok, but you really shouldn’t touch anyth-,”

“Bruce can we keep him?” Rhodey interjected excitedly.

He blinked, “What? No! No, we cannot keep him.”

“Why not?”

“He’s from space! Look, he’s literally wearing a spacesuit!”

“This is actually my Nova corp. uniform.” Cosmo corrected him.

“And it’s so adorable!” Rhodey scratched his back using his ‘puppy’ voice.

“What about, I don’t know, space germs?”

“That’s offensive.” Cosmo glared at Bruce.

“Rhodey, we are not taking the space dog home!”

“Why yes, I would rather you didn’t…”

The three of them turned around to find a tall figure wearing a red robe lined with white fur. His eyes were dark and shadowy while his white hair stood on edge.

“I find must of my possessions quite… valuable.” He spoke softly.

Rhodey held up his repulsor, “Who they hell are you?”

The corners of his mouth turned up in a twisted smile, “I am the Collector.”

“Yeah, alright, and why should we care?”

Rhodey was answered with a blow dart in the neck.

* * *

Bright beams of light flooded Bruce’s vision as he woke to someone harshly shaking his shoulder.

“-ruce… Bruce!” Rhodey’s voice and face came into focus, “Wake up!”

Bruce groaned, sitting up. Rhodey was wearing a grey t-shirt; his War Machine armor was nowhere to be seen.

“Rhodey? What… what happened?”

“Oh Collector!” A pink alien he hadn’t noticed was standing outside the cell they were in called out in a singsong voice, causing him to jump, “The prisoners have awoken!”

She wore a white uniform with a sliver collar, her dark hair in bouncy pigtails, and she was caring a tranquilizer gun.

The Collector rolled his eyes, clearly annoyed, “I know, Carina. I can clearly see that. Your idiocy grows tiresome.”

Carina seemed unfazed by his comment as she skipped happily to his side. Bruce noticed that Cosmo was in the cell with them his helmet disappeared as he crawled over Bruce’s lap and sat directly in front of the glass, his nose about an inch from it. His eyes narrowed and he glared at the Collector.

“Look, pal.” Rhodey began, his jaw clenched, “We don’t want any trouble. Kindly return me my suit, then we’ll take what we came for and be on our way.”

“Now that doesn’t sound close to anything I had in mind.”

“Not supposed to.”

“I don’t know how I haven’t heard of you.” The Collector smirked, “You’re fun.” He then pointed a long, pale finger at Bruce, “Now you I have heard of.”

Bruce’s blood ran cold as the Collector stepped closer.

“You have quite an extraordinary condition, Dr. Banner.”

“How do you know me?” Bruce asked cautiously.

He worn a twisted smile, “Well, ever since you became one of ‘Earth’s Mightiest Heroes’. The Avengers seems to be all anyone is talking about. Plus, I’ve put forth my research. Imagine the crowd that would come to see the Incredible Hulk in the Collector’s museum!”

“I’m sorry, but we’ve got more pressing matters than drawing in customers.” Rhodey defended Bruce.

The Collector gave a soft laugh, “Well, you don’t exactly have a choice.”

Rhodey turned to Bruce, “Ok, I already know you’re going to be against this, but speaking of, you know… is the other guy planning on making an appearance?” He asked in a hushed voice.

“What? Rhodey no…” Bruce couldn’t help the slight annoyance in his tone, “The other guy isn’t coming! He’s gone!”

For about as long as he could remember he always lived with the threat of Hulk taking over if he got just a little too irritated. But now… he was just Banner. It was like Hulk had just left.

“Ha, well, joke’s on you.” Rhodey shot back at the Collector, “Did you hear that? Hulk’s gone!”

The corners of his mouth dropped to a frown, “I suppose we have ways to make him show himself, but… It’s a shame really. I did like you.”

“No!” Bruce cried. He couldn’t let him kill Rhodey. He couldn’t let anyone else die.

“Come on!” He hit himself as hard as he could across the face, “Come on you idiot!”

“No!” Hulk roared from inside him.

“Bruce, stop! You’re hurting yourself!” Rhodey tried to stop Bruce’s hand from hitting his own face again.

“You know what? You’re a coward, that’s what you are! We’ve all lost, and hell we’re still afraid, but we’re all here risking everything for a chance, and you won’t even show your ugly green face!” Bruce yelled at himself.

“Bruce-,”

“Rhodey, I need you to punch me.”

“What?”

“Punch me. In the face.”

He shook his head, “Yeah, no I’m not doing that.”

“Come on!”

“No, I’m going to hit you!”

“Just do it!”

“Will it get you to shut up?”

“Probably not!”

He felt the painful blow of Rhodey’s fist across his face and Bruce collapsed onto the floor.

“Bruce! Oh my God! I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to-,”

Bruce grinned up at him, blood pouring from his nose, “No, that was good! Do it again!”

“Absolutely not!”

“Rhodey, you have to!”

“For the love of God!” Cosmo exclaimed before he clamped his jaw around Bruce’s ankle.

Bruce’s face fell as the pain shocked throughout his body, the dog’s teeth like daggers piercing his skin and digging into his flesh. He bit his lip to contain and ear-piercing scream as a deep green haze clouded his vision.

“Bad dog.” Hulk growled.

* * *

Hulk… well, smashed. He broke through the cell, managed to demolish almost the entirety of the museum, and grabbed the Collector by the ankles and slamming him repeatedly into the ground.

Rhodey held out his arm as the War Machine armor flew towards him and assembled around his body.

“Give it up, pal. Where’s the stone?”

“Like hell I would tell you!” The Collector gave a winded, enraged reply as Hulk finished his pounding by tossing him on the ground. Cosmo then pounced on top of the Collector.

Rhodey shrugged, firing a missile from the forearm of his suit behind him, and the quick glance to his side told him otherwise.

“I know the thing they say in BBC Sherlock is it’s funny how fire exposes our priorities, but I’m more of an explosion kind of guy.”

He fired another missile at the door the Collector glanced at and it collapsed into flaming splinters. They only item not obliterated in the ashy storage room was a small, rectangular, beige box with a red strip down the middle giving off a soft red glow.

“Carina! Stop him!” The Collector exclaimed.

She slowly turned on her heel towards him as Rhodey snatched the box and tucked it under his arm.

“I will no longer be your slave!” She cried furiously, hitting him right in the face with the butt of her tranquilizer gun before firing. The Collector was limp and seemed lifeless on the ground.

Rhodey opened the box and placed the Reality Stone in the containment unit on his wrist. He winced a little at the shock that shook through his veins. The next thing he knew was that the Hulk was towering over him. He felt his warm, monstrous breath as he exhaled sharply.

“Um… The sun’s getting real low?” Rhodey tried.

The Hulk grinned before morphing down into Bruce again. But this wasn’t like any other time Bruce ‘hulked out’. For one thing, he hadn’t passed out and seemed rather calm about the entire situation and for another… he was still wearing his clothes.

“Bruce, what the actual fu-,”

“I know right?” Bruce cut him off beaming, “This is, this is crazy!” He ran his fingers through his own hair, “Wow, I mean… I can remember things as Hulk now! And my clothes… It was like we were finally agreeing with each other.” He gasped excitedly, “We were driving the car together!”

“I literally have no idea what that means…”

“It’s a metaphor!”

Carina clear her throat and pointed her gun between them, “What do you want with that stone? It’s one of the most powerful relics in the universe.”

“Woah put the gun down! We’re on your side! At least… unless you’re working for Thanos that is.” Bruce told her.

She raised her brow, lowering the gun, “I believe the Collector mentioned him once before.”

Rhodey nodded, “Yeah, and if we don’t stop him, he’ll kill half of everyone in the universe. He already did that to our universe.”

Carina glanced down at the Collector, “Then you best hurry. The affect won’t last long.”

“What about you?”

She smiled sadly, “I’ll be fine.”

Cosmo tilted his head, “You intend to stay?”

“My place is here.” She sighed, “I’ve never known any other home.”

Rhodey paused, “What about everyone else here?”

“The Collector enslaved every one of us.”

“Then I think it’s time we set them free.”

“I know where the Collector keeps the override key for the mainframe.” Carina grinned, “It will dismantle the locks for the entire place.”

Rhodey smiled, “And when we break them all out… they’re gonna need someone to lead them.”

Carnia didn’t respond at first, her expression unreadable. Then she nodded slowly, “Yes, but not me. What if I were to fail them?”

He shrugged, “You might. There’s never a guarantee that things will work out, but sometimes you have to give it your all with the one shot you’ve got.”

She gave a knowing smile, “Thank you.”

“Good luck.” Rhodey returned.

She nodded, turned on her heel, and headed for the Collector’s main control room.

Cosmo glanced between Bruce and Rhodey, “I must go. There are pressing matters I must attend to, now that I have regained my freedom. Thank you, Colonel Rhodes and Dr. Banner.”

“Good dog.” Bruce cooed, scratching between his ears before Rhodey could respond.

“Anytime Cosmo.” He replied.

The corners of the space dog’s mouth turned upwards as his helmet appeared around his head again. He turned and trotted off after Carnia.

“So… I was thinking…” Rhodey glanced sideways at Bruce after they were gone, “Once everybody’s out we should blow the whole place up.”

“And… why should we do this?”

He shrugged, “Cause it’s been too long since the last time I blew something up.”

“Ah… yes.” Bruce replied humorously, “I mean, that’s fair.”

Rhodey shot him a glance, “Seriously?”

“I mean, sure. That’s fine.”

“Aren’t you supposed to be the cautious, responsible one?”

He sighed, “You know, that’s kind of starting to get overrated. I give that to Tony.”

“Well then every one of us are freaking screwed.”

“I think we already are.”

“We should probably get him out of here before we do that then.” Rhodey glanced down at the unconscious Collector.

“Yeah… probably.” He agreed, “Hey, that was a good pep talk you gave that girl.”

He gave a knowing smile, “Yeah, I think she had been through a lot.”

“So have we.”

“Yeah.”

Silence.

Rhodey picked up the Collector, “Be right back.”

He burst through the ceiling and flew to the outskirts of the city. Not many people were out to witness in the pitch-black night. Only a few stars peaked behind the clouds. He laid the Collector down in the middle of a darkened alleyway on top of the bags of garbage that flooded it. As he flew back again and got closer to the museum, he grinned as he saw Carina leading the freed aliens from it. He reentered through the hole he had created in the ceiling the first time and landed carefully next to Bruce.

“Is the area clear?”

He nodded, “Carnia has them all far enough away and our good ol’ pal the Collector will have fun taking out the trash tomorrow.”

“Alright…” Then he groaned, “This is stupid and childish.”

“But it’s also fun.” Multiple missiles fired from the shoulders of his armor targeting different areas of the building.

Bruce grinned, rolling his eyes as bright green flickered across them and tinted his skin. As the Hulk emerged, the two did what they did best.

Smashing and blowing things up.

Maybe it wasn’t necessarily what they did best, but it was most certainly a signature. And it felt great.

But Rhodey couldn’t shake the feeling, as the last of the building fell into flames, Bruce reemerged again, and they prepared to return home, that a fight was coming for them. The fight of their lives. They were going to get one last shot to use every weapon, strategy, and ounce of fight left. And it was going to take everything they’ve got.


	21. We'll do this together too

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> After barely escaping Thanos, Tony and Steve lash out on each other for what happened. Scott tries to bring them both back together.

The painful impact shook throughout Steve’s body as he crashed to the ground with a thud. He skidded to a stop along the ground and spat a chunk of dirt from his mouth.

“We’re still alive!” He heard Scott cheer distantly, but then again, his ears were still ringing so he could have been right next to him.

They appeared to be in the middle of a grassy field. The dirt had been flung up in the areas around them and the grass throughout the field was dry yellow. The sun was beginning to droop in the sky as soft, pale shades of warm shades of pink and orange stretched across it. The air was mostly dry; however, a small breeze brought a slight chill to it.

“Woah, I gotta say, Thanos is a _lot _scarier in person than I thought.” Scott hurried to him as Steve pushed himself off the ground.

“Yeah…” Steve nodded. It was hard to believe that that was really what just had happened.

“You know, it’s a lot scarier when a teenager dies in your arms.” Tony replied gruffly from behind him. Steve turned his head and found Tony standing behind him with his arms crossed.

“Oh, shut up!” Steve groaned, “We get it! Your kid died! That’s so sad! I watched my best friend die for the second time and that was pretty sad too! All of it sucks, Tony. You’re not the only one who’s lost here.”

“You think I don’t know that!” He raised his voice and the pain in it increased as well, “Remember that time you said we’ll lose together too? Well, where were you? We lost. We _failed_. And… and I can’t live with that! Ever since… I’ve told myself I can’t fail I _promised_ I wouldn’t because I knew someone would die, someone always dies… and it would be on me.”

“Guys, chill.” Scott tried, glancing between them.

“Could you at least try for two minutes not to blame this entire thing on yourself and accept that the rest of the team is going through the same exact thing as well?”

“Were you even listening to me?!”

“Fine, if you’re so torn up about being _alone_, then why’d you split up the Avengers in the first place?” Steve shot back.

“Excuse me?!” Tony let out a hysterical, disbelieved laugh, “_I_ split up the Avengers? God dammit Steve, that was you! You couldn’t sign that God damn sheet of paper because you couldn’t stand the thought for a minute of someone watching over your ass so then you went off to go chase your boyfriend-,”

“Language.”

“Bitch, don’t language me!”

“Guys!” Scott yelled as loudly as he could. He appeared flustered as the two turned to him.

“Lang, you’re gonna want to stay out of this.” Tony warned.

Scott shook his head and sat back down on the ground; his legs folded. He patted the space next to him.

“We’re gonna do circle time.”

“What are you, five?”

“No, I’m a dad.”

Tony glanced from Scott and back to Steve, “He’s not serious, is he?”

He shrugged, knowing he was and probably wasn’t going to move from that spot until they did. He sighed, sitting on the ground in his spot. Scott was unable to hide his signature, goofy grin.

“Yeah… no.” Tony shook his head, “Not happening.”

“Come on… those are the rules!”

“What rules?”

“The rules of circle time!”

“No.”

“Please?”

“No.”

“Come on man!”

“No.”

“When this is all over, I’ll take everyone out for donuts!”

Tony rolled his eyes, “I’m an adult. You can’t bribe me with food. And besides, I could buy out almost all the donut stores in the US if I really wanted to.”

“Fine.” Scott shrugged, “No one said you _have_ to get donuts with us.”

“Now hold on, I never said I _didn’t _want donuts…”

“I could always sing Bad Day until you sit down.”

“You wouldn’t.”

Scott cleared his throat, “_YOU HAD A BAD DAY! THE CAMERA DON’T LIE!”_

“Alright, alright! Fine! Shut up!”

“_YOU SING A SAD SONG BUT IT GETS IN YOUR EYEEEE!”_

“Those aren’t even the words!”

“Fine. Want me to try again?”

“No!”

Tony’s arms were folded across his chest and he glared at Steve for a moment before turning his head.

“Look, guys.” Scott began more seriously, “Everyone’s lost someone, someone who they’re gonna blame themselves for not doing better to protect them or be there, and hell, it’s gonna hurt. But I know for a fact I still have a best friend, a ghost friend, and a bunch of badass Avenger friends along with the people we’ve lost who I’m not ready to give up on yet.”

“Maybe we wouldn’t have lost them in the first place if someone hadn’t gotten the Avengers to split up, and we had taken Thanos head on and fought together like a team.” Tony replied sarcastically.

Steve rolled his eyes, “Like you even thought about giving a call.”

“I did.” Tony looked him dead in the eyes. His expression was serious, and his dark eyes brimmed with regret.

Steve imagined Tony picking up the phone but hesitating to call. He sighed. They had both nonverbally agreed that they weren’t on speaking terms, but… it just didn’t feel right for Tony to think that he couldn’t call him. They shouldn’t have let things get so out of hand.

“Look, Tony, I’m sorry.” And he really meant it, “I don’t know if we’re ever going to be able to forget what happened, or every even agree on the accords, but none of that matters now. I’m just sick of us feeling like we can’t even talk to each other anymore!”

Tony gave a sad smile, “Yeah, me too.”

Steve grinned back. They had been best friends at one point, hadn’t they? They could at very least work together one last time to save the universe.

“So… are we gonna do this or what?”

“I guess we’ll do this together too.” A ghost of a smile flickered across Tony’s face.

Scott grinned mischievously between them, “That was adorable… Now you gotta hug it out.”

Tony narrowed his eyes and frowned at him, “Absolutely not.”

“You have too. Those are the rules of circle time.”

“And what fricking rules of circle time are you referring to?”

“Fine!” Scott exclaimed before leaping between the two of them and wrestling both of them into a group hug.

“Grah! Scott! What are you doing?!”

“Hugging you!”

Steve laughed. Maybe there were still the small important moments he could protect. That was worth it enough for him. But they wouldn’t stop until they reversed it. Brought everyone make and made things better. The right way.

All the sudden, a deep, loud hum caused him to turn his head in the direction of a low flying spaceship.

“Umm… Did that seem a little weird to anyone else?” Scott stood up defensively as the ship passed over them before asking the question on everyone’s minds, “Hey, where exactly are we anyways?”

Tony pointed in the direction of the spaceship as it lowered even further towards a long, white facility off in the distance that the one look on Tony’s face told him they both recognized, “I think I know.”


	22. Lovable Idiots Club

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Okoye, Rocket, and Pepper infiltrate Nova Corps to retrieve the power stone.

Okoye pressed her back against the cold, steel wall after checking the perimeter then turned to Rocket and Pepper, “The coast is clear.”

Pepper nodded and Rocket loaded his gun. The three of them crept down the hall on high alert. Okoye threw her spear around a corner where it lodged into a security camera. It sparked and whined as it died when she pulled the spear free.

The Nova Corps headquarters was essentially a large skyscraper with members crowded together in the larger open areas rather than the shifty, dimly lit hallways they traveled through in the middle floors. However, those hallways required a high amount of surveillance. They took turns taking out the security cameras as they made their way to the top of the building.

They stopped at a pair of wide, white granite double doors on the top floor.

“We’re most likely going to have to fight our way through this.” Okoye whispered, tightening the grip on her spear.

Pepper flashed a grin back at her, the brim of her arc reactor brightened and stirred as it charged. Then Rocket rapidly fired the doors with his gun until they collapsed, and a crew of Nova Corps members turned their way in surprise.

“Dude!” Pepper shot a look at him.

“What?” He smirked, “It’s been way too long since I’ve blown something up! Besides, I did them a favor. Lightens up the whole place.”

The sound of weapons warming up and preparing to fire filled the room as all the Nova Corps members aimed at them. Shots were fired from both sides of the room from the Rescue suit and guns. Okoye slid underneath one and fended them off skillfully with her spear. However, as soon as it seemed they had neutralized them, a new wave came in.

“See? We gave away our position! That’s just going to make this about ten times harder!” Pepper huffed while taking one out with a blast of her repulsor. A new one latched onto her back just as quickly and held his gun up to her head. Okoye figured that her helmet would protect her, but she wasn’t ready to take any chances. She pried him off by swiftly bringing her arm around his neck and then kicking him in the back of the shin, causing him to fall to the ground.

“Thanks.” Pepper replied before supercharged blasters emerged from her suit and hovered in the air while firing.

“Sure thing.” She smirked, “Nice trick. And Rocket, chill on the guards.”

“Alright, you know what?” Rocket continued sarcastically while rapidly firing. He, almost disturbingly, looked like he was having the time of his life, “I’m sorry. I think having a hotheaded friend with the common sense of a Chituari clouds your judgement and often times your sanity.”

“Wait… you know what that’s like?” Pepper asked almost in disbelief, “Does yours also assume they’ve got everything under control and nearly get themselves killed?”

Okoye raised her brow, “Are they’re incredibly stupid in the sense of logic and due to that they get themselves in seemingly impossible to overcome type situations, so you always have to end up saving their life?”

“Yes!” Pepper and Rocket cried at the same time.

“Man, who knew there were so many idiots in this galaxy?” Rocket grinned.

“Lovable ones.” Pepper pointed out.

“Well, yes, I suppose. It’s my responsibility to make sure he doesn’t die. He also tends to freeze.” Okoye smiled to herself thinking of how T’Challa froze like a deer in headlights in the presence of Nakia.

Rocket shrugged, “He’s got his moments.”

The three broke through the defensive line the Nova Corp had built between them and were greeted with another wave.

“They’re just going to keep coming. The leaders have probably evacuated with the stone by now.” Okoye muttered, taking out one with her spear.

“Alright, I’ve had enough.” Pepper fired at the ceiling and Rocket joined in as well until there was a gaping hole in it. The ceiling was low bearing enough for Okoye to leap off the glass table thrown off to the side of the room, onto a tall Nova Corp member’s shoulders, and up through the hole as Pepper and Rocket flew through.

She felt a strong wind batting at the back of her neck and turned in time to see a ship leaving the launch bay on top of the roof.

“Perfect.” Pepper muttered sarcastically, “We can’t let them get away!”

“I’ve got an idea.” Rocket pointed at the launch bay, “But it’s insane and will probably get us killed.”

Okoye shrugged, “I can work with that.”

“Great! What’s the plan?” Pepper inquired.

“Basically, I’m gonna go in there and hijack a ship, but I’m gonna need you guys to buy me some time.”

Okoye nodded, holding her spear in line with her. Sure enough, as the three approached the launch bay, the Nova Corps members surrounding it turned on them and began to fire. Rocket scurried past fast enough before any of them could catch him while Okoye and Pepper fought back.

Fights always seemed to distract her, for they were always different and unexpected, but this time she felt like she was going through the motions a bit. The very thing she kept trying to distract herself from seemed to bring itself back up all over again in her mind. The exact moment as she reached for T’Challa’s hand she grasped at the air his ashes floated in flooded her head. He was supposed to be here so she could protect him. Not to mention Shuri was now across the multiverse out of her reach. It was her job to protect the royal family. That meant this plan of theirs’ had to work; she had to bring him back. Bring everyone back together.

“So… is adrenaline always this high on a mission?” Pepper asked, bring Okoye out of her thoughts.

She shrugged, “I guess you get used to it.” She skillfully disarmed a Nova Corps member with her spear before taking her down, “So, is this your first?”

“Mission, yes. But this isn’t my first fight.” Pepper blasted one running up on Okoye from behind with her repulsor.

Okoye wore a knowing grin, “I call tell.”

Loud shouts and cries erupted across the launch bay as a ship torn through the scene and hovered directly above them. It had eight blue wings with a yellow tip, four of them longer than the others on the top, bottom, and sides connected to a short, thin, yellow body. The hatch at the bottom of the ship opened and Rocket’s anxious face appeared.

“Hurry up! This won’t withstand their firepower for long!”

Pepper firmly wrapped her arms around Okoye and the two flew through the hatch at the bottom of the ship, evading the shots below them.

* * *

Rocket jerked the yoke of the Star Blaster in a hasty escape to avoid being shot out of the sky. Star Blasters were known for their firepower but not much for their durability. He had never flown one before and couldn’t yet find the weapons controls.

“Hey, you sure you know how to fly this thing?” Pepper’s helmet disappeared revealing the real amount of concern in her voice as she made her way to the front of the ship.

“Lady, I’ve flown rust buckets that aren’t even designed to fly. This is far from the most difficult to fly ship I’ve piloted in this galaxy.”

“You’re a racoon. How do you know how to fly a ship?” Okoye raised her brow.

“I ain’t a racoon.” Rocket retorted.

“Really, what are you then?”

“I just told you. I ain’t a racoon.”

A heavy blast to the side shook the entire ship.

“Dammit.” Rocket muttered, “Where are the blasters on this thing? We’re on a frickin’ Star Blaster!”

“Alright, plan B. I’ll be the blasters.” Pepper made her way to the exit hatch on the ship.

“Wait… is she…?”

“Yep.” Okoye replied, making her way to the hatch as well.

“Wait, are you…?”

“Yep.”

Rocket shrugged, “Alright then.”

With the blaster situation taken care of for now, his main focus was catching up to the ship carrying the power stone. When they retrieved the power stone, and _when _they did since there was no other alternative, he wondered what exactly would happen next. All he knew was how bad he wanted his idiots back. He missed them, more than he ever wanted to or would admit. It hurt and it felt like a large chunk of him had died with them.

Rocket’s brow furrowed as the ship he had nearly caught up with turned around to face them. His eyes widened in realization.

“Holy sh-,” He was cut off as the ship began to aggressively pelt them with energy shocks.

“Ah, screw it!” Rocket exclaimed, banging his fists on the control board.

As he did, a prodigious gun emerged at the front of their ship and a heavy, bright red blast struck the other.

“That… actually worked.”

However, the ship in front of them mustered all its energy into a ray to counteract theirs’. But the blast from their Star Blaster met the other in the middle. Now it was only a matter of time before…

Rocket jerked back on the controls as a red explosion erupted from the center. The ship spun in the air for a moment before he was able to regain control. And just as he did, his head snapped at the sound of the hatch door opening.

Okoye climbed inside, her spear clenched in her hand and her expression slightly irritated.

“Wait… where’s Ginger?”

Okoye let out an impatient sigh, “She went to get the stone.”

* * *

Pepper traced a circle around the side of the ship with her repulsor and then barged in. They weren’t getting away with the stone.

Despite Okoye’s protests, Pepper headed straight for the attack. Curse Tony for rubbing off on her, but she felt like if she didn’t get the stone, then it would be her fault.

She stepped inside to the sound of weapons charging.

“Now, if you would just-,” Pepper began slowly.

A woman in a navy-blue professional uniform with vanilla blonde hair styled into swirls on top of her head held a grey orb brimmed with glowing purple in one hand defensively and raised her other to Pepper.

“Take her down.” She commanded.

“…Listen.” Pepper sighed as the shots spewed in her direction, “Or, not.”

Her plan was simple. The suit was equipped with explosives that could be activated from a function within her suit. Her goal was to place them in each corner of the ship and then let them ignite. She slid the first one across the floor into a corner before skillfully taking on members with a series of blasts, kicks, and punches. One doubled over after being kicked in the crouch and Pepper pushed him to the side as she planted another in the far corner parallel to the first.

Two more to go, however, two members firmly grabbed each of her arms and brought her to her knees. She struggled to break free from their grasp and another one repeatedly fired at her suit. Her armor protected her and was hardly dented. But as much as it protected her, the shock of pain quite literally hit her across the face when she was struck with the end of a gun. While the blow was absorbed by her helmet, the impact shook throughout her head and she could taste the pang of blood in her mouth.

Pepper jerked her arm back and her repulsor whined as she blasted the one she broke free from in the arm. The other’s grip loosened for a mere second in surprise and she took the advantage to blast him as well.

She flew over the army of raging Nova Corps members and practically threw the third explosive into its corner before darting to the last and final one. The shots seemed to all hit her at once as she fell to the ground. This time she stood up more determined because there was one more to go and no giving up now.

As soon as she placed the very last one, a great number of arms secured her in her place dragged her over to the woman in the center of the room.

“And just what do you have to say for yourself?”

Pepper flashed a satisfied smirk from underneath her helmet as she activated the explosives from inside her suit, “Boom.”

The entire ship shook as the surrounding fire and cries erupted around them. She was let go as everyone around them rushed to the escape pods and the heat rose. Two tall Nova Corps members attempted to assure the woman out, but she instead held up a gun as Pepper took a step closer.

She let the helmet disappear from her face, “Would you believe me if I told you the fate of the universe relied on me and my friends having that stone?”

“I’m sure it does.” Was her unconvinced reply.

An unpleasant crackling noise stretched across with the crack that spread, threatening to split the ship.

Pepper took a deep breath, the smell of burning and the flames flooding her senses, “I’m sorry.”

She lurched forward; the two members fell to the ground as she struck them for trying to get in her way. She then clasped her hand around the orb and took it from the woman’s hand.

They had done it. They got it and they were one stone closer to saving half the universe. The small accomplishment lifted her hope just a little at the thought of seeing everyone reunited with the ones they’d lost enough for her heart to swell and the corners of her mouth to perk up.

However, the cold realization burned against her skin and it took a moment for her to gather what had just happened between her turning to leave, the woman firing her gun, and the scorching pain on her face.

Pepper sank to the ground. Everyone else had escaped the flames at least. That’s when she fell through. Fell through the bottom of the ship as it snapped from the pressure and explosions. She felt herself drawing away from the heat of the fire as she fell and then hit a hard surface. The next thing she knew she was being pulled inside of a familiar looking ship.

“Oh my God.” Okoye muttered, “Don’t make yourself join the lovable idiot club; you’re too good for that.”

She smiled weakly, the agony feeling better and worse all at the same time. She lightly waved the orb in the air, “I got it.”

“Yeah. You also got shot in the face and nearly got yourself killed.” Okoye pressed her palm to her forehead, “What am I going to tell Stark?”

“Simple. I got shot in the face and nearly got myself killed. He’s a big boy; he can handle it.”

“You know, Cherry Blossom over here is really starting to grow on me.” Rocket grinned, “Not many people can say they’ve walked away from a shot to the face.”

Okoye rolled her eyes, “Don’t encourage her. Let’s just get this stone back home and save the goddamn universe already.”


	23. Everybody's Back

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Shuri and the gang are all back in Wakanda with four out of six Infinity Stones. Tony and the gang are at Avengers compound with the mind stone and plans for the Iron Gauntlet. Tony sends a prank call to get Shuri and the gang over there as fast as possible because Tony is Tony.

“So… basically what you’re doing is harnessing the quantum energy from the time stone and using that energy to regenerate Vision’s biofibers before reprogramming his composition to work collectively with his artificial intelligence and without the mind stone?”

Shuri looked up from her work for a brief moment and flashed a knowing grin, “Basically.”

“That’s… genius.”

Bruce Banner made for good company and understood what she was trying to do, leading to their discussions over the science of regenerating the Vision. While she knew the better use of her time would be to focus on pinpointing the exact location of the soul stone somewhere in the multiverse, this current project felt more important. Saving one life felt like the most accomplishing thing she had done since this whole mess had started and she knew she would get it done this time.

Speaking of projects, Shuri made a mental note to place Nebula’s new arm towards the top of the list as well. Nebula and Rhodey had already managed to spark conversation while Shuri operated on Vision.

So far, they had the time stone, reality stone, and space stone back in Wakanda. Thor had also managed to bring back his brother as well, which Bruce and Rhodey both seemed slightly hesitant about at first, but he didn’t seem to bother anyone while shooting the occasional eye roll at his older brother, which she could relate to.

Shuri gave a frustrated sigh.

“What is it?”

She shook her head, “Vision’s humanoid form is drawing away and absorbing quantum energy from the source. The vibranium I installed into his skeletal and exterior is barely helping anymore. His vitals may destabilize and collapse unless I can get a large enough energy surge through him.”

Bruce nodded slowly, “Alright, this may not be the best idea, but it worked the first time… Hey Thor?”

The Asgardian grinned and approached them energetically, “What seems to be the trouble Banner?”

A new warmth took to Bruce’s face as a ghost of a smile tugged at the corners of his mouth. The two had a lot of time to grow close over the last couple of years, being trapped on Sakaar and all. It was actually really cute that they both had each other. While she didn’t know exactly what the relationship was between them, whether it was a platonic friendship or a romantic attraction, it didn’t stop her from shipping them. She would have to discuss it with Kamala when she returned.

“We need a large power surge in order to save Vision. And I was thinking maybe your lightning could bring him back, like it did the first time.”

Thor nodded brightly, “It is indeed worth a try.”

The light shimmer of the protective glass that folded over Vision reflected the Stormbreaker axe Thor raised over his head. Just as the axe struck the shield with an eruption of lightning and electricity, the quantum portal stirred and sparked to life. Pepper, Okoye, and Rocket where harshly thrown from the portal in a bright flash of light.

“Okoye!” Shuri cried happily, rushing to the general’s side.

She lifted her head and smiled at the young princess, wrapping her into a hug. Shuri knew nothing terrible could have happened to her, but it was a relief to grasp onto her with the hope of them being able to bring T’Challa home as well.

“One power stone, as promised.” Pepper grinned, handing Shuri a small, grey orb that glowed a steady purple through its faint cracks. Her face was badly burned.

“Oh my God, hold on one second…” Shuri took the orb and lead Pepper to her medical supplies, “Ok, rub some of this in, that will take care of the burn and help regrow your skin, but it will probably take a little over thirty minutes.”

“Wow, this is some pretty heavy duty burn cream then.” Pepper commented.

She beamed, “Thanks, I made it myself.”

Shuri then placed the orb in her portable containment chamber as she operated the robotic arms on the inside to twist and pull it apart. The power stone remained suspended in the air in a beam of steady, purple light.

“Gotcha.” Shuri beamed before placing the stone in a detached version of her wrist device along with the other stones.

She watched Rocket playfully tug on the sleeve of Nebula’s jacket and Rhodey grinned sympathetically towards Pepper.

“Is Tony…?”

She then watched his face fall as he shook his head.

“Mr. Stark is at Avengers compound in Upstate New York.” A calm voice replied almost automatically.

Everyone whipped around at the sound of the voice. Nebula, Okoye, Rhodey, Pepper, Loki, and Rocket defensively held and aimed their weapons while Thor placed a protective arm over Bruce and gripped Strombreaker tighter allowing for electricity to crack. Bruce’s hand flew over his mouth as Shuri grinned from ear to ear.

A look of confusion settled on Vision’s face, “What appears to be the problem?”

“Friend Vision…” Thor managed, his voice breaking just a little, “You’re alive.”

Vision nodded slowly, “Yes… well, not literally, of course, but in the sense of a functioning artificial intelligence…”

He was interrupted as the Asgardian wrapped him in a great hug.

“Thor? Is everything alright?” Vision’s hand involuntarily touched his forehead as Thor set him down. There was no longer the mind stone, but his self-repair system had allowed for a pure white, fluorescent crystal to form in its place. He blinked in confusion until realization eventually crossed his face.

“Thanos… the stone feels… different… what exactly happened?”

Shuri tried to figure out the best way to break the news to him, “Well, Thanos succeeded in removing the stone from your head, but we’ve got all the stones from different timelines and used the time stone to bring you back.”

Vision tilted his head slightly, “So, he won?”

She sighed, “Yes.”

“Oh.” He glanced around the room and nodded slowly. His eyes lit up with hope only for his expression to fall, “Wanda?”

Rhodey shook his head.

“We’re going to get them back.” Pepper assured determinedly.

“And make him pay.” Nebula added more seriously.

Her words hung in the air for a moment before Vision turned to Shuri.

“Princess Shuri, thank you for restoring me to health.”

She smiled warmly at the humanoid and nodded. She saved him. She saved him with her second chance. It felt like such an accomplishment compared to the rest of the situation. And technically, this was their second chance at a shot against Thanos. She felt they truly had a shot at defeating him, once and for all, this time.

“Hey, Vision?” Bruce spoke up, “How do you know where Tony is?”

“Oh.” His eyes widened in realization, “Yes, he has sent a distress signal from the Avengers compound.”

And just like that they were off, Shuri bringing the tools she could use to locate the soul stone and Scott’s backpack that he had seemed rather attached to along for the ride to save Tony’s ass.

* * *

“And… just sent a distress signal to the Wakandan region.” Tony announced before returning to his work involving lots of holograms and cool stuff like that.

Kamala still couldn’t believe she was in the actual, real life, legit Avengers compound! Despite the fact that Thanos was most certainly on his way to murder them, it was still the coolest thing she had done today besides fight alongside Captain Marvel of course.

It was kind of a lot to take in. It was bigger than she had imagined. A lot bigger. Man, she couldn’t express how much she wanted to explore it, take it all in, or maybe even train on one of the training courses, but that would have to wait because there were much more pressing matters at hand.

Carol raised her brow, “So the universe is at stake and you’re sending a prank call?”

“Not a prank call. It’s a premature, almost truth. I’m going to be emotional distressed in a little while. Give Lang a couple of minutes to make me.”

Scott looked up from the card trick he was showing Korg, a playful smile spread across his face, “Now why would I do that?”

“Where did you even get a fricking deck of playing cards?”

“Magic.”

Kamala couldn’t help but laugh at the annoyed and disbelieved expression that settled on Tony’s face.

“Ok, I hate to interrupt… whatever this is…” Valkyrie began, “But I think a little clarification on this plan might be an order.”

Steve nodded, “She’s right. We get all the infinity stones together… then what?”

“That’s what I’m working on.” Tony replied as a holographic image of a metallic glove appeared in front of them, “Think of it more as an iron gauntlet rather than an infinity gauntlet.”

Scott raised his hand.

Tony’s brow wrinkled in confusion, “Um… yes Scott?”

“We weren’t here for that part.”

“Yeah cause you guys suck.” Tony laughed as everyone apart from Steve and Kamala glared at him, “I’m kidding… sort of.”

“It’s the magical glove thingy Thanos put all the fruit loops of power in.”

Tony raised his brow, “And I _know_ you weren’t there. How do you know that?”

“Excessive obsessively fangirling. It’s one of my superpowers. Along with fanfiction writing.”

“Wait…” He smirked, “You write fanfiction?”

“Yeah! Actually, one of my highest hitting fanfics was the one where you and Captain Marvel and Captain America fought a bunch of shapeshifting, vampire zombies and I kinda teased this interdimensional threat at the end and I’m gonna bring everyone in to fight it!” Kamala decided to leave out the part at the end when Captain America and Iron Man went on their long overdue, romantic honeymoon.

Tony wore a sad smile on his face but as he looked down his expression fell blank and his eyes pained.

“Uh… Mr. Tony Stark sir? Are you ok?”

He nodded, “Yeah, you just… I think you’d be good friends with… well, with Spider-Man. He was a… he was really important to me. I think he would have liked you.”

Kamala smiled a little. Friends with Spider-Man? Sounded incredible! But she could tell how much it hurt him. She knew exactly what that felt like. Losing friends and family. It hurt a lot, “We’ll get him back. We’ll get them all back.”

A ghost of a smile flickered across Tony’s face as Scott chimed in optimistically, “Yeah! Come on guys! We’ve come this far! All of us have already fought Thanos, not to mention how we’ve been all over the multiverse trying to find these stones! This is gonna work, I mean, it has to!”

But there was always, ‘what if it didn’t’? And, wouldn’t Thanos be back? They still hadn’t really _stopped_ him. What was keeping him from redoing it when they undid it, or worse? Was there any way for them to come out victorious?

“Sir, a Wakandan aircraft has entered the compound’s perimeter. Shall I grant them permission to land?” The really cool A.I., F.R.I.D.A.Y., spoke throughout the room.

“Yeah, I don’t see why not.” Tony then sighed, “Exactly how pissed to you think they’re gonna be that we’re not in any actual danger?”

Carol shrugged, “Oh, I think pretty pissed. What do you think I was trying to say?”

“… TONY!!!”


	24. Everybody's Back Again

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> All the remaining Avengers meet up at the compound, put all the infinity stones together, and...

“You know what a distress signal is right? An appropriate situation to use it in would be, say, if you were in distress?”

Tony rolled his eyes at Rhodey, “Yes, for the thousandth time! It was the only way you guys would get here fast enough!”

“You didn’t think of giving, ‘bring the infinity stones so we can save the universe’ a try?” Shuri remarked sarcastically.

He crossed his arms, “And I’m still mad that nobody told me that Pepper got shot in the face!”

“Cause it wasn’t a big deal!” She rolled her eyes, “It was just a light burn.”

“I’m sorry, but I heard the word ‘burn’.”

“You know what, I think this is good. Now you know how I feel every time something like this happens to you!”

“No, this is not where you lecture me with a lesson! You could have gotten killed!”

Pepper held out here arms, “But I didn’t!”

They continued to go back and forth, and Carol couldn’t help but feel the area around Tony’s workspace was getting a little crowded. Reunion was good though. The humanoid, Vision, had been brought back by Shuri and embraced both Steve and Tony who seemed shocked and overjoyed to see him all at the same time. Reunion would hopefully be the eventual outcome of all of this. Thor nearly cried seeing Valkyrie and Korg again, and even Loki seemed relieved to see them as Valkyrie gave him a side hug. Everyone seemed a bit on edge around him, and Carol had the nagging feeling she had missed something important. Except for Scott, who had proven beyond far of meeting the definition of an extrovert and was performing the card trick Korg had encouraged him to show him. What was even better was when Loki raised his brow and asked how he did it.

The red and gold ‘Iron Gauntlet’, the stuck name for the time being, bared five out of six infinity stones.

“So… the soul stone can’t be found on Vormir in any timeline?” Nebula asked in disbelief.

“See, that’s the thing.” Shuri began, “If the stone’s location didn’t show up in another timeline, that’s because one was already within close proximity in this timeline-,”

Almost on cue, a series of orange sparks spread through the air, creating a portal. Natasha, along with a man and a woman Carol didn’t recognize, stepped through as it closed behind them. But… she could tell something was wrong.

Nebula let out a light gasp and Rocket stepped towards the woman in disbelief, “Gamora?”

She had cool green skin and long, wavy dark hair with magenta tips. She gave a sad smile before looking up to Nebula.

“Neb-,”

Nebula cut her off with a tight hug and she… smiled.

“I, I thought… I thought Thanos killed you, I… I didn’t…”

“Nebula, it’s ok. I’m here.”

“I thought he had taken everything he possible could from me, but then I realized it wasn’t truly everything because then he took my sister too.” Her voice cracked as she spoke, “We thought you were really gone.”

Rocket nodded and Gamora smirked, “Oh, come here!”

“Gamora, I, you know I’m not a hugger! Ow! Ok, I’m glad you’re alive. Happy? I can’t breathe.”

Nebula rolled her eyes, “Drama queen.”

They continued on with their banter while Tony turned to the others, “Natasha, Wong? What happened? Where have you been? Your hair’s red again.”

Carol knew the face all too well. To be hiding a tsunami of hurt, heartbreak, confusion, and disbelief behind an emotionless expression. The spy unfolded her fingerless gloved hand to reveal the small, glowing orange stone lying there in her palm.

“Oh my God.” Bruce breathed.

“Didn’t think it was worth much without the full set.” She replied wittily, but every word seemed like a pained effort.

Okoye noticed too, “Natasha, are you alright?”

Wong and Gamora both glanced at Natasha and then at each other. Nebula sighed.

“The cost for the soul stone is a soul.”

That’s when things clicked. Natasha was a skilled agent and assassin. Her mission was to find Clint Barton and there was no doubt that she did, and probably could have done it with her eyes closed. And if she now had the soul stone… then where was he?

Steve’s face fell and Tony’s hand flew over his mouth. Bruce shook his head in disbelief and Thor…

Thor, hesitantly at first and then slowly, wrapped his arm around Natasha and gave her a light side hug. He sighed, “Friend Natasha… I’m so sorry.”

“Clint… is dead.” She choked back on tears.

Thor shook his head, “I believe you are wrong. He’s not dead. He’s not gone. He’s right here with us, like he’s been since the beginning. And I don’t believe he would want us to mourn his death. He would want us to carry on and keeping fighting the battles that they cannot. And that won’t stop us from missing him or wondering how things could have turned out differently. But Friend Natasha, you are the heart and soul of this team and care the most for every one of us. It’s one of your greatest strengths and has held this team together, even when it supposedly fell apart. You knew Clint the best, but you mustn’t blame yourself. I know exactly what that’s like, to feel like the rest of the world has crumbled around you and like it’s… like it’s all your fault…”

“You are not alone.” Okoye placed her hand on her shoulder.

Natasha sniffled a little and gave a sad smile.

“Natasha, I’m truly sorry.” Loki began, earning him a deathly glare from the spy as she nearly lurched at him, but Steve held out his hand.

“Nat! He’s on our side… I think.” He glanced at Thor who shrugged.

“If not, he’ll have to survive the electrical shock from the blasters I have targeted on him.” Tony commented wittily.

“And that’s what I get for trying to be supportive.” Loki huffed, “What I’m trying to say is, I know Barton felt very strongly for you, I can imagen you felt similar for him. I am deeply sorry to hear of his loss.”

Natasha’s expression softened, just a little, “Thank you…” She then smirked and added, “You Asgardian asshole.”

Loki rolled his eyes, a grin tugging at the corners of his mouth. Thor wrestled him into a hug with Natasha as well. He let out an annoyed sigh as Kamala extended her arms around all of them, tears sparkling in her eyes. And soon enough, everyone comforted Natasha with a ginormous group hug.

“Ok… We are you all squeezing me with your bodies?”

“It’s a hug, Natasha.” Steve replied, “We’re hugging you.”

Suddenly, Carol swore she could hear a faint beeping noise. She exchanged a glance with Valkyrie and Scott, who must have heard it as well.

“Hey guys… what’s that-,”

He didn’t get to finish his sentence before the compound exploded around them.


	25. The Beginning of the End(game)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> With the compound blown up the Avengers all now have to face off against Thanos… and some unexpected foes.

Everything around him was a blur. Scott attempted to sit up and pressed his hand to his forehead, trying to process what happened. There was too much going on around him and he wasn’t even sure if anybody could hear him. He was crushed between two giant chunks of debris with limited space for his chest to expand and collect air.

Relief surged through him as he felt the activation button underneath his thumb and shrank down, traveling between the cracks. He finally came to a stop below an opening between the cement big enough for him to break through.

“Ant-Man! Scott!” A voice called out.

Scott turned to find a shrunken down Kamala rushing towards him.

“Kamala! You’re alive! Thank God! And… you’re tiny? You can shrink too?”

Kamala blushed, “Oh, yeah.”

“Wow, that’s great!”

“What’s happening? Who’s attacking us?”

“I don’t know but get ready for a fight.” He pointed upwards, “This might hurt a little bit. Think you can handle it?”

She nodded eagerly.

“Alright, on the count of, uh, fourteen, we’ll grow big again.”

“Isn’t fourteen a little big?”

“Maybe. Fine. I guess we’ll just do three. One, two, three!”

Scott and Kamala burst through the cement, “Guys? Where are you? What’s going on?” Kamala called when they returned to their normal sizes.

Scott gripped the straps of his backpack that Shuri returned to him for comfort. He missed Hope more than he could express with words. She would’ve known exactly what to do.

“Kid?” Someone coughed from behind them who he recognized to be Rhodey.

Kamala turned running and Scott began to follow her but was knocked to the ground. Pain struck throughout his body and his attacker placed their hand over his mouth to keep any panicked screams from escaping him. What was going on? The attacker touched their fingertips to his forehead and whispered, _sleep_. Things began to turn to black as Scott felt himself slip out of consciousness. He snapped out of the trance after a bright flash of light sent the attacker flying backwards. Then, they leapt on their feet and scurried away. All the color looked like it had been drained from the attacker, leaving behind a deathly grey. A small trail of ashes followed close behind them and…

Scott gasped as he felt his shoulders for the backpack straps that weren’t there. The attacker had stolen his backpack.

He felt _something_ grab his shoulder to keep him in place. It wasn’t a person’s touch; it was more like some sort of force. He turned to find the ghostly form of Stephen Strange behind him again. His red cloak had wrapped itself around Scott to keep him from running.

“Woah… Your magic cloak is hugging me. Is it like, a ghost cloak? How does that work? Hey thanks for saving me back there.” He gasped in realization, “Dude, am I dead again?”

“No, you’re not. Scott, you must listen to me. It’s an emergency. Thanos is enraged and he’s here. He’s brought back the fallen heroes from the dead using the soul stone to redeem their souls and the mind stone to control them, along with an army of outriders. We must warn the Avengers.”

Scott blinked as Stephen let him go and helped him up, “Wait, what? That’s… wait, mind controlling them? Was that the explosion? Outriders? Stephen, that’s a lot to take in, I…”

“We don’t have time!” He exclaimed desperately, “I used all the power I could muster to break free from the soul stone where we were being held to warn you guys.”

Scott nodded maybe little too quickly, “Alright, alright. Guys? Guys! Can anybody hear me?” He called.

Both their heads turned at the sound of footsteps behind them followed by a repulsor blast.

“Scott…” Tony froze, staring right _at_ Stephen Strange. He could see him too.

“Oh good, you can see him, right? I thought I was starting to lose my mind.”

Steve nodded slowly and Tony shrugged, “Yeah, I thought you were crazy too.”

Steve nudged him in the ribs and Scott shook his head, “No, guys this is really important.”

Carol floated down towards them, Valkyrie latched onto her side and supporting Shuri with her other arm, “Guys, we’ve got a situation. There’s an entire fleet of ships and an army of outriders right outside our door.” She nodded to the ghostly sorcerer, “Nice to see you, Strange.”

He smiled sadly, “I’m afraid my presence here has confirmed the worst of possibilities. The threat is great, and we must bring together the remaining Avengers in order to stop it.”

“Yeah, no shit Sherlock.” Tony replied humorously.

“Stark, you don’t get it. Thanos has brought back heroes from the dead in order to use them against us. He’s controlling them to be merciless because he knows we won’t do the same.”

Tony’s face fell as his words sank in and Rhodey sighed, “Perfect. Another civil war.” Was his sarcastic reply, “How bout we all just get along for a change?”

Kamala pointed behind them, “Guys… what’s that?

They followed her gaze to the rubble that shook behind them with a low, rumbling sound. All the sudden, an enraged Hulk burst from the ground and the remaining Avengers came out from underneath the debris after him.

Natasha held the iron gauntlet safely under her arm, “What do we do now? Also, there’s a ghost behind you.”

Another explosion brought down the remaining framework and cleared a path between them and the army.

“Forget the gauntlet.” Tony instructed, “It’s too easy of a target and if they get the stones, we’re dead.”

“Ok, six of us will each take one of the stones and the remaining will separate into teams with that person. Look after each other and protect each other.” Steve instructed.

He took the time stone; Tony, the mind stone; Thor, the space stone; Natasha, the soul stone; Bruce, who was now Bruce again in almost record time, took the power stone, and Carol, the reality stone.

“Alright, let’s finish this.”

But as soon as they fought the first wave of outriders onto the battlefield, a large group of familiar faces stood, guarding the Mad Titan. Scott felt his heart drop to the bottom of his chest and Okoye sighed.

“I don’t know what could have prepared me for this.”

Thanos stepped towards them and the charging outriders yielded.

“You see, in one’s attempt to balance the universe, there were always destined to be obstacles.” He began coldly, “This ignorant team of, _heroes_, tends to be a reoccurring one. It pains me to do this, but I simply have no choice. You refuse to live in peace, and in order to maintain that peace, I’ve been forced to make a very difficult decision. Your sacrifice today will ensure the glorious future for generations to come.” He paused, “However, I admire your fight and willpower. I hope they remember all of you.”

So that was it. His plan was to use their friends to destroy them and after that, they would either die again or serve as part of his brainwashed army? According to Thanos, the Avengers were the ones standing in the way of his ‘perfect’ universe, so they had to be destroyed. If they really did die here, would anybody else step up?

This wasn’t part of the plan. Their friends were _back_, but not really. How could they _actually _bring them back?

And at the sound of a gunshot, all hell broke loose.

* * *

Gamora ferociously swung her sword through an outrider, furious at the outcome and flooded with the memories of destruction.

She had chosen to follow the Avenger, Natasha, who had the soul stone, across the battlefield with the General, Okoye. Both were incredible skilled fighters and had each other’s backs as they fought.

All the sudden, a pack of the outriders seemed to gang up on Gamora all at once. She let out an enraged cry as she sliced them, but one dung its claws into her shoulders from behind and pulled her to the ground. About a dozen more outriders took the opportunity to rip her apart and she cried out in pain as one sunk its teeth into her forearm.

However, she watched as the next one which was about to bite her had its face blown off and almost too quickly, the rest either lay on the ground next to her dead or mortally wounded; many stabbed through the chest.

Okoye held out her hand to help Gamora up off the ground. She took it gratefully and smiled, “Thank you.”

She nodded, “We look out for one another. It’s what we do.”

Natasha’s batons crackled with electricity as she viciously attacked the outriders and then turned to Gamora, “Your sister said you’re quite the warrior. She really looks up to you.”

Gamora blushed a little, never in a million years imagining Nebula looking up to her. Her time in the soul stone had been… complicated. Time simply had frozen. It didn’t feel like a long time, nor a short time. She had been just a little girl again, the most innocent version of herself. That must have been what happened to everyone inside the stone in the soul world. She couldn’t see all of them; you could only see who your soul most longed to see. Hence, seeing flashes of Peter, Drax, Groot, and Mantis as young children as well. The most startling was how Mantis looked the youngest of them all.

But she had missed her sister most of all. Seeing her and Rocket again filled her heart with something she hadn’t felt in a long time.

“So… it’s not awkward that were gonna try and kill your dad, is it?”

She couldn’t help but smile at the redhead’s remark, “No, I have a feeling it won’t.”

Okoye gave her shoulder a light squeeze, “Families are… complicated. We end up building our own with the people we trust. We will help you bring yours back.”

Gamora returned her warm expression and smiled, “Thank you.”

“Alright ladies, we’ve got more incoming.” Natasha informed as the gripped their weapons.

The three women then charged across the battlefield, showing no mercy to their enemy.


	26. The Beginning of the End(game) pt.2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Steve, Nebula, and Vision face off against the outrider army and some painfully familiar faces...

Steve dropped the time stone in one of his belt pockets and fought his way across the battlefield alongside Nebula and Vision.

His spirits had been lifted and he had been overwhelmed when he saw Vision was once again alive and well. Apart from no longer having an infinity stone in his head, Vision was still the same caring, compassionate Vision.

The three of them were actually quite the team. This was the first time he had seen her in combat, but Nebula was an incredibly skilled fighter and fueled by her fury as she took on outrider after outrider. Their combined efforts allowed them to gain much headway and brought them exceedingly far across the battlefield.

He instinctively snapped around at the sound of a gunshot and held up his forearm. The bullet deflected off the shield. And they kept coming.

He knew it was bound to happen, but the disappoint still weighed his heart down to the bottom of his chest.

“Bucky…”

The other super soldier then struck a blow to his face, utilizing a hand-to-hand combat strategy. He felt the blood running down his face from the impact of Bucky’s metal arm as he fought back defensively, not wanting to hurt his best friend.

Steve gave a sad sigh, “Aw Buck, how come we can never seem to be on the same side?”

“Unless I am mistaken, I was under the impression you were on the same side during the civil war over the Sokovia accords.” Vision imputed while phasing through both of them, grabbing Bucky from behind and throwing him over his shoulder.

“You know what I mean.” He shrugged, “It just seems like too much of a coincidence. I mean, HYDRA, now Thanos…”

“Watch out!” Nebula exclaimed, leaping through the air as Vision phased and Steve held up his shield.

Nebula slashed at someone flying low in the sky who crashed down beside them. But they were immediately back up on their feet.

“Aw Sam!” Steve cried, “Come on! Not you too!”

An overwhelming number of outriders charged behind them, occupying Nebula and Vision while he battled Bucky and Sam.

“Are you kidding me?!” Steve huffed, “Whenever I try to get you two to get along, you just keep on bickering… but some Mad Titan strolls in and brainwashes you two and _then _you want to work together? Seriously? Not cool!”

Sam grabbed Bucky by the arms and threw him onto Steve as he flew through the air. Steve let out a grunt as he hit the ground under Bucky’s weight. He pulled a blade on him quickly so that Steve barley had enough time to react. However, that didn’t stop the blade from piercing his shoulder.

“Buck, no!” He cried, twisting Bucky’s arm holding the blade forcing him to drop it.

Bucky raised his metal arm and Steve winced, preparing for it to impact his face. He heard a clank and slowly opened one eye, unsure of why he still hadn’t felt the inevitable pain.

Nebula held back his metal arm with her own. She gritted her teeth for a moment before she proceeded to kick him in the chest, sending him backwards.

Sam swooped down to attack her, but Steve leapt up and grabbed ahold of him. He slashed his shield across his pack, causing it to malfunction. He tackled him to the ground and Steve skillfully fought him back. Eventually, when Steve thought he was done, his wings burst out and slapped him backwards.

Vision stood between them and Sam’s fist went straight through him as the humanoid phased. He proceeded to punch him across the face and Steve couldn’t help but feel guilt rip at his heart. This wasn’t right.

He whipped around at the sound of a strangled gasp. Bucky held Nebula off the ground by her throat, metal glistening as his grip tightened.

“Bucky!” He exclaimed, slicing him across the chest. He knew his armor would protect him from any real damage. It was enough to shock into dropping her.

Steve grabbed ahold of his right arm and caught the punch Bucky threw at him with the other.

“Bucky, stop!”

And he did for a moment. Steve searched his face, but it was unrecognizable. Ashes circled him and his usual calm, hazel eyes were grey.

“Please, this isn’t you. Please come back. I can’t lose you like this again!”

In a flash, Bucky punched him in the gut, and he doubled over. He probably could have taken the super soldier’s force had he been expecting it. He managed to block his next hit and regain his footing.

Then he threw a punch, reminding him of the time he hit the bully behind the movie theater before Bucky came to his rescue, and he stumbled backwards. Steve’s heart wrenched. This was still Bucky. Even though he wasn’t… himself, he couldn’t hurt him.

So, Steve let Bucky hurt him. He accepted that he couldn’t help it. He focused on the outriders and if Bucky attacked him, he just walked it off.

They eventually lost them in the fight and Nebula sighed, turning to Steve.

“Hey, thanks for saving my life back there. I saw the way you looked at him. It’s really hard to lose someone you love; the only person in the world who you feel like understands a part of what you’ve been through. I’m really sorry.”

Steve gave a weak smile, “Yeah… it sucks, doesn’t it?” He let out a humorless laugh, “But… for the record, I’m the one who needs to be thanking you. You’ve already saved me twice today!”

A smile tugged at the corners of her mouth as she rolled her eyes, “Don’t mention it.”

Vision floated up next to them, “I know it may be a little late in our adventure, but I don’t think we have been properly introduced…” He held out his hand, “I am Vision.”

She nodded, taking his hand, “Nebula.”

Steve grinned at the two but sighed as the growling of the outriders increased behind them, “We’ve got more incoming!”


	27. Fights Against Familes

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Carol, Scott, and Kamala are faced with a Thanos-powered Scarlet Witch along with more fallen heroes (Who Kamala fills in on the names). Meanwhile, Shuri has to face off the one person she was most determined to save... her brother.

“We need to get to Thanos.”

“Excuse me?!” Scott exclaimed, dodging the outrider slicing at him and holding another back by its arms, “I don’t know if I heard you correctly over the vicious growling of the army of outriders swarming us at the moment, but did you just say we need to go _towards_ the madman sending forth millions of ruthless killing machines and brainwashing our friends with the very thing we’re supposed to be keeping away from him?”

Her hand lightly brushed past the pocket on her belt where she had placed the reality stone, “Yep. Pretty much.”

“Okay, but… you know I’m all for crazy, stupid, or delusional ideas, but this…”

“Relax. I got it covered. You might want to do your shrinky thing though.”

Carol soared upwards and let the energy billow around her. She gave off a blinding orange glow as she raced back to the ground and a ginormous energy blast rippled across the battlefield, sending the outriders flying.

She settled back on the ground and Scott reappeared next to her, “Yeah… I guess that’ll work.”

“Woah Captain Marvel that was amazing!” Kamala gasped excitedly, running towards them, “All the outriders were just like, ‘Grah!’, and… Woah my gosh look out!”

Kamala grabbed an outrider with her enlarged hand by the legs that lurched at them at incredible height.

Scott groaned, “The more we take down, the more that just keep coming!”

“Hey! You’re the optimist!” Carol shot back.

“I’m way over my shift of being the optimist it’s somebody else’s turn now.”

He shrank down and took out the outriders before they could even touch him while Carol blazed through the surrounding ones.

“You know, Shaggy could take out this entire army with, like, .06% of his power.” Kamala exclaimed, holding open the jaw of an outrider away from her face.

Carol ripped the outrider off of her and blasted a hole through it. She turned and exchanged a look with Scott, “Ok, I haven’t been to Earth in a while, so what does that mean?”

He shrugged, “I honestly have no idea.”

“Oh my gosh, is that Scarlet Witch?” Kamala cried, point up to a figure coming down at them from the sky in a red flash.

“Yeah, but something tells me she’s not in the mood to give you an autograph kid; watch out!”

Scott pushed Kamala out of the way as she hit the ground in a blaze of fury. An explosion of red burst from her body sending everyone flying backwards.

“Wanda! Stop! Thanos is controlling you! Remember me? I the ant guy, we met a while ago, back in Germany?”

Her eyes glowed a furious red that trailed along with the ashes floating around her.

“… I’m gonna take that as a no.”

Kamala sighed, “Now we’re fricking screwed.”

Just then Wanda trapped them in place with a red haze. Carol winced as she drew her hands closer together; it felt as if her body was being crushed. She cried out as she fought against her to ball up her fist. Energy flickered around her closed fist as the power surged through her.

In one motion, she struck out her arm and broke free, her eyes blazing orange. Wanda stumbled back in shock but then came back twice as furious. Carol continuously struck her with an energy blast.

However, Wanda struck back with her own magic, the beam meeting her’s in the middle.

Out of the corner of her eye, Carol noticed something or someone coming down straight at her, but Kamala held out her embiggened hand catching it in her grasp.

“No way!” She gasped, “Spider-Man?!”

He was about as tall as Kamala at her usual height and wore a navy blue, red, and gold metallic suit, the colors faded like his ashes, with his face hidden underneath a mask. The wide white eyes of his mask narrowed more to black as she yelped in pain from an electrical shock and golden limbs sprouted from the back of his suit, prying her fingers apart.

“Kamala!”

But she held her ground, like Carol knew she could. She held him high above her, her arm over doubled in length, and Carol smiled proudly.

“Bro, is that a new suit? Oh my gosh it looks awesome! I mean, don’t get me wrong, I love your classic suit, but this one is so cool! I mean, woah, it’s like an ‘Iron-Spider’, or something!”

She swiftly brought him to the ground. However, the Spider… child?... fought back. A series of blasts rained down on Carol and she held one arm up in the sky in its direction and the other still at Wanda. She caught a glimpse of a figure firing twin blasters at her, wearing a metallic silver mask with red glowing eyes and ashes fraying from their coat.

“I got him Carol!”

Scott grew big again, tossing an outrider at the figure and knocking him from the sky. He then returned to his normal size as the figure flew back and fought him on ground level.

“Wanda!” She called across to her, “Kid, you gotta listen to me! You may think you’re calling the shots, but you gotta fight him! I call already tell you’re strong than this!”

Her eyes flickered for a second before she shook her head. Carol caught her gaze drift towards Kamala and Scott.

“No!” She cried, lurching at her and bringing her up into the sky. She sent her crashing down with a blaze of force. Her entire body glowed with fury as she pressed Wanda to the ground with her own power.

“Carol!” She heard a faint cry, “Don’t hurt her!”

Scott. And he was right. Carol took a step back, ashamed of how far she had taken it. Wanda didn’t move.

“I’m sorry.” She nearly whispered, “You’re being forced into using your powers to hurt people… I know that all too well.”

Wanda stirred a little and her eyes fluttered open. They focused on Carol and this time they were soft and exhausted.

“Can… can you hear me?”

She nodded. Carol brushed the fiery auburn hair from her face and helped her sit up. A little of the color returned to her features.

“I’m the one who’s sorry.” Carol almost couldn’t hear her quiet, dying voice, “I can’t fight him… my magic isn’t strong enough.”

“Kid listen to me, you’re a lot stronger than you think. You can put up a hell of a fight. You wouldn’t be talking to me right now if you couldn’t fight him.”

Her expression lifted into a soft smile only to be overtaken be a look of dread. She cried out and clutched the sides of her head.

“Kid? Kid! What’s wrong, what’s going on?”

“He’s… coming b, back…” She gasped through tears. She sent Carol one final pleading look as she made her final wish, “Please… run.”

Red magic burst from her and Carol crossed her arms in front of her face, unmoving. There was no way she could defeat her without hurting her, like before. She hadn’t even used all her power on her then.

She flew up in the air and impacted the ground in front of Wanda, sending her flying. Then she turned and grabbed the arm of Scott’s attacker, kneeing him in the stomach and punched him across the face with a glowing fist that threw him backwards.

“Thanks.” He glanced at her, “You almost had her.”

She huffed, “I know.”

“You know, now might not be the best time to tell you, but I’m a big fan of your YouTube series!” Kamala’s cry trailed off as she was thrown through the sky by the spider kid flinging her through it with one of his webs.

Carol and Scott exchanged a glance, looked at the kid, then back at each other.

“Kamala!” Carol exclaimed. Scott shrank and perched on her shoulder as she raced to catch her.

Kamala had nearly hit the ground and into the awaiting jaws of the outriders before Carol caught her and carried her in arms, floating above the ground.

“Oh! Hey!” She beamed, “Not exactly how I had imagined meeting most of my heroes…”

The three of them looked down at the battle raging below them.

Carol heard a small sigh from her shoulder, “How are we gonna get out of this mess?”

“Guess we do what we always seem to end up doing.” Carol replied, “Fight our way out of it.”

* * *

Shuri shuddered at the familiar sharpening sound behind her. There was no way on Earth she would have ever been ready for this moment. She dared turn her head to see the undead Black Panther behind her. Her brother. She felt her heart smash and shatter into pieces.

All of the heroes Thanos had brought back did not seem to truly be _back_. It was almost they were stuck in the space between life and death. All the will and soul taken away from and replaced with _him_. This had to be worse than being dead.

She didn’t know what to do next. She couldn’t fight her brother. But he would murder her if given the chance. Plus, given he was older, he had more years of combat experience.

So, her plan was simply not to give him the chance.

He lurched at her and she held up her forearm to block the attack and swerved around him, kicking him in the side. T’Challa was hardly even taken aback as he sliced across her chest with his claws.

“Ha ha! Catfight!”

T’Challa roundhouse kicked her in the face and she fell to the ground.

“Yeah, alright… it seemed funnier at the time.” She pressed her arm off the ground.

An explosion sounded to her right. Rhodey and Bruce were busy with that. Shuri was on her own.

The two fought hand to hand. Shuri was able to pull herself into a rhythm, enough to defend herself but she wasn’t stopping him in any sort of way. She managed to kick him in the chest unexpectedly, sending him backwards, but he leapt right back up and struck her in the stomach. She doubled over but smiled triumphantly.

“If Thanos wasn’t controlling your judgement, you would have realized that was a very poor move.”

Shuri struck the ground and a green blast erupted from her suit. The victory was short lived as soon as she heard an electrical charging sound behind her.

“Oh, come on!” Shuri groaned, “Nakia!”

Nakia grasped her two disc weapons, prepared to attack. Ashes were left behind in the air as she loomed towards her.

“I’m screwed.”

T’Challa had now come up on the other side of her as well. There was no way she could take them both.

“T’Challa! It’s me! Shuri! Your freaking sister! Come on, I know you’re still in there!”

He didn’t stop. Shuri braced herself for the sudden slash or volt of electricity, or both. All the sudden, an enraged cry broke out and Shuri’s head snapped in the direction of its source.

Okoye’s spear blocked T’Challa from slashing her.

“Can’t you two get along? Your mother will not be pleased.”

Shuri rolled her eyes, “Jeez, I didn’t know you were taking this so hard. You’re quipping now.”

The two stood back to back to face Nakia and T’Challa.

Shuri hoped maybe, for a moment, that maybe T’Challa and Nakia would snap out of it and it would all be over. She would have her brother back and they could all defeat Thanos together. That, sadly, was not the case.

Nakia and T’Challa charged at them from either direction, but this them, they were ready. Nakia swung at her but Shuri caught her arm and twisted behind her. Then she kicked behind her, forcing Shuri to let go. She whipped around and fought her hand to hand.

Shuri saw Okoye punch T’Challa in the face and he stumbled backwards. She raced past them, leapt off a fallen chunk of the building, and tackled Nakia to the ground.

Okoye grabbed her by the shoulder, “Are you alright? Are you hurt?”

“Okoye, I’m fine!” She sighed, “But, you know… thanks.”

The general smiled and Shuri laid her unconscious brother up against the rock. Okoye did the same for Nakia. Shuri sighed, brushing her fingers against his shoulder and turned to leave, but… she just couldn’t. She turned back and threw her arms around him as silent tears streamed down her face.

“T’Challa…”

It seemed like years had passed before Okoye spoke, “Shuri… we, we must go. The others need our help. T’Challa would want you to keep fighting. I’m… I’m so sorry.”

She sniffed, “There’s nothing we can do to help him?”

Silence.

“I, I can help him! There’s gotta be something… I can do in my lab… I can save him, I…” Shuri choked back a sob.

Okoye slowly helped her to her feet. She glanced back one last time at her brother. What could she do? Did this mean they had lost them to Thanos, for good?

Gamora and Rhodey fought a heard of outriders and Okoye and Shuri charged into the scene with an enraged cry, joining the fight.

“Rhodey! Shoot me!”

It was funny how she could almost see the confused look on his face from under the mask, “I’m sorry, what?!”

“I need you to shoot me!”

He shook his head, “Yeah, I don’t think so kid.”

Okoye forced her spear through an outrider, her teeth gritted, “Just do it!”

“It’s ok! My suit will absorb the kinetic energy from the bullet and exert twice the-,”

“Ok, I get it. You’re also starting to sound like Tony.”

Rhodey fired at her and the outlines of her suit flashed bright green. She leapt over him and pounced on the ground; an explosion of green sent the outriders flying backwards.

“Woah, ok, that was pretty awesome.”

Shuri smirked back at him, even though he probably couldn’t tell from underneath her mask.

All four of them turned at the sound of a ferocious roar. The Hulk and the Black Widow stormed towards…

Thanos.

Shuri looked at Okoye to see her exchange a glance with Gamora.

All the sudden, a bright orange light flooded the field.

“Hey guys. Need some help?”


	28. Disaster Team

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Pepper, Tony, Stephen, and Wong team up while Loki, Thor, Valkyrie, Korg, and Rocket fight together. Loki actually finds sympathy toward Rocket Raccoon.

“Alright disaster team, how’s it looking?”

Pepper rolled her eyes, “Disastrous.”

“Come on Ms. Potts. Try to be a little optimistic.” Stephen replied, smirking.

“Hey, that’s Mrs. Stark to you.”

Tony nearly fell over. Wong saved him from an outrider about to nearly rip his face off.

“Alright, wait, hold up. Could you repeat that again? I just, I just want to hear you say it again… also to make sure I’m right.”

“Mr. Stark, I believe we have more pressing matters at the moment.” Wong commented as he and Stephen created a force field around them that shoved the outriders away.

She nodded, “Thank you, Wong. Best not to lose focus on the important issues at stake.” Turning to Tony as she said it.

Tony held out his hand to her in a comedic gesture, “Shall we?”

Even under the mask, she could tell he was wearing the witty, playful grin she hated so much she loved.

Pepper took his hand, “We shall.”

And together they flew off. Hovering back to back, they blasted the outriders below them.

“Pepper.” Tony pointed to the group of Avengers, all of them charging at Thanos, “What the hell are they doing? We have to keep the stones anyway from him!”

“I don’t know but they’re gonna get themselves killed! We’ve got to help them!”

He nodded slowly, “Alright, let’s go get the wizards.”

Back on the ground, a grey figure with two large knifes sharpened them against each other as he approached Stephen. Stephen lurched his fist at him, however, it traveled straight through him.

He groaned, “Not having a physical body sucks.”

The grey figure roared at him and Stephen held up his arm defensively as he tore through him.

“Never mind.”

Pepper swooped down, taking out the figure.

“Strange! Wong! We’ve got a group going for Thanos.”

Stephen turned to Tony, “Well what the hell are they doing?”

“That’s what I said!”

“Well then let’s…” Pepper trailed off as she noticed a certain figure looming towards them, and her hand flew over her mouth in horror.

Tony and Stephen exchanged a glance and then Tony sighed, “Hey kid.”

* * *

Loki forced his knife through an outrider, whipped around and did the same with his other hand to another one. Valkyrie’s blade sliced through them as she appeared beside him followed by Korg.

“Woo! Revengers! Wait, wait! No, we need Banner! I should go find him!” Thor cheered happily, floating down next to them with the raccoon perched on his shoulder.

Loki felt a tight grip close around his ankle. The pressure was caused by branches, and before he knew it, he was thrown in the air and slammed into the ground repeatedly, not too different from his experience with the Hulk.

“Tree! No!” Thor cried as Valkyrie disarmed it with her sword quite literally.

“Hey! Watch the sword, crazy Viking lady!” Rocket spoke with a growl.

“Oh, look at that! It’s a magic tree! It has regained its arm.” Korg replied as the tree’s arm sprouted back and he sprinted at them.

“Groot! No!”

Thor blasted him backwards with a bolt of lightning, “Quick, we must keep going!”

Valkyrie nodded and fought her way through the herd with her sword. Korg pounded an outrider into the ground with his fists. Rocket, however, remained rooted in place.

“Groot…”

Loki glanced between the racoon and the enraged tree now extending its branches in their direction to attack, “Come along rodent. We must go!”

Rocket slowly shook his head.

“Rodent! Now!”

Loki snatched him from off the ground and slung him over his shoulder. He felt the claws against his shoulders in protest.

“No! Stop! Let me go! God dammit, put me down!”

He leapt over a mountain of debris and ducked behind it as an explosion erupted overhead. He tightly gripping the raccoon and held him out in front of him.

“I know how bad you want this. But there’s nothing we can do for him. Thanos has taken him and created with him his own monster. His own, unredeemable monster.” Loki sighed, “He did the same to me.”

Tears filled the raccoon’s eyes. He tried to blink them away, but they instead rolled down his cheeks.

“You must let go and move on. There is no point in gripping onto something that is no longer here.” Loki replied somberly.

Rocket gave a small sniffle. “I _can’t_.” He closed his eyes and let out a shaky breath before burring his face in his paws. After a few moments, he sighed, “So you’re a monster too?”

Loki replied with a humorless laugh, “Indeed.”

“Then I think you’re wrong. Family is different. I’m a lab experiment, but there are people out there, my family, who don’t care about that. They never gave up on me, so as long as there is still life in me, I’m not gonna give up on them. And if you’re the ‘unredeemable monster’ you think you are, then how come your brother cares so much about you?” The raccoon smiled before turning to return to the fight.

He blinked as the words sunk in. There wasn’t an answer he could think of. But Thor did. He always had. And that’s all that mattered. He grinned to himself and stood.

As he emerged from behind the debris, he pierced the outrider tearing at Thor with the knives that shot from his hands. The outrider made a pained noise before slowly crumpled to the ground.

“Don’t ever. Touch my brother. Again.”


	29. Adopted Avengers

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Natasha is able to revive a fallen avenger with the soul stone. Also, Kamala and Shuri are now basically the adopted kids of all the Avengers.

Natasha gritted her teeth before crying out in anger; followed by the Hulk’s ferocious roar. The two approached Thanos together, but the Mad Titan, however, did nothing in response besides hold his position. He was waiting.

“Nat!” Rhodey called. Carol beamed, hovering above them. Okoye, Shuri, Gamora, Scott, and Kamala appeared on either side of Natasha.

Thanos finally took a step forward, his fist with the gauntlet clenched.

And for the first time the fact, the realization, that they would die settled in. Of course, Natasha had been waiting to die, hoping at points, but this is the realest the possibility had felt in a long time. And it felt… strange. It wasn’t her death that bothered her, even though she didn’t entirely want that to happen. It was everyone else. They signed up to bring back friends and family, and some of them were probably too young to understand that this might actually be _it_. The end. She felt it was her job to bring back what was without losing what they had now. And if that meant she wouldn’t be around to reunite with them, then so be it.

Clint thought the same way. He wouldn’t have died if he didn’t. God, how was she supposed to tell Laura…

She shook that thought away. It wasn’t fair, but it was done. That person he had seen in her all those years ago when he spared her life was the person she had to be now. An Avenger. The soul stone felt like it was burning a hole through her pocket.

Ginormous spikes thrust from the ground. Natasha leapt, maneuvering around them and lurched at Thanos, landing a blow on his face with her baton. He swatted her aside, raising his fist in the air, but was taken out by a bright stream of light. Carol doubled back and the Hulk then tore at the Mad Titan.

The outriders around her fell as Rhodey flew overhead and she continued to fight her way through them back to Thanos. He grasped both Hulk’s fists in his own, slowly forcing him back. The realization beginning to flood back to his face.

“Come on big guy!” She called, but couldn’t reach him, “Fight him!”

He gave one last roar in the Mad Titan’s face, but there was a great deal of pain in it and it looked like his grip only tightened.

A familiar bolt of lightning broke through the sky and struck him, forcing him to release the Hulk. Natasha wore a relived smile as Thor swung at him with his axe and Hulk with his fist.

“Are you ok? Did he hurt you?” Thor placed a gentle hand on the Hulk’s shoulder and Natasha broke through the last in a burst of electricity. He grinned happily, “Natasha!”

Ok, was it just her, or did the soul stone feel like it was now literally on fire? She smiled back. Bruce returned again, looking slightly confused.

“Banner!” Thor cried, wrapping him into a tight hug, “You scared me!”

Bruce gave a soft laugh, “Are you sure? I, scared you?”

Natasha heard the slice of a sword behind her followed by a groan as Valkyrie rolled her eyes, “Would you two just get a room already?”

She couldn’t help but laugh, especially when Bruce’s cheeks turned bright red.

All of the sudden, balls of fire rained furiously from the sky. Natasha felt the enraged burn across the scorched material on her arm. She took a step back as she began to frantically pat it out, but just then someone tackled her to the ground, saving her from a blaze of fire that burned from where she had been standing mere seconds ago.

“Loki?” She raised her brow, “Did you just… save me?”

“I know, this is a surprise for me too.”

Natasha cautiously took his hand he offered to help her up. She exchanged a glance with Rocket, who had also appeared during the chaos, and he simply shrugged.

“Alright my dudes! That’s it!” Shuri cried furiously, “I’m about to end this man’s whole career!”

“Quick! Loki!” Thor exclaimed, “We must do get help!”

“What?” Loki face grew pale in horror, “No, absolutely not!”

“Come on! It works every time! The fate of the universe is at stake!”

“Thor, no!”

Natasha rolled her eyes. Whoever said they weren’t biologically related?

“What’s even happening anymore?” Scott muttered sadly and Okoye lightly pat him on the shoulder.

“Alright everyone! Everybody needs to get a grip!” Natasha called, “If we’re every gonna take him… what, where are Nebula and Gamora?”

Korg shyly pointed behind her.

Natasha sighed, “Yup. They’re fighting their dad right now. Why do I feel like everyone’s babysitter?” She muttered to herself.

This time she winced, her fingers fumbling as she hastily pulled the stone from pocket. It felt like fire against her skin, even more so than the actual fire against her skin from earlier had felt. Plus, it was now pulsing orange.

Natasha’s head snapped at the sound of a scream. Gamora lay on the ground, a cut through her side and Nebula rushed to her side. Thanos raised the gauntlet over them.

“No!”

Natasha rushed in front of the sisters and held up her arm, the stone clenched in her fist. Suddenly, a bright orange light erupted from her, sending him backwards.

Her hand shook as she caught her breath and everything else around her seemed to fade away. Everything except…

She sighed as an unreadable looked crossed Thanos’s face. “The soul stone is the most mysterious of the infinity stones…” He began, “Intriguing that you have the might to wield it considering your mortal status. But I give you fair warning, if you continue to attempt to use it, it will destroy you more than it could harm me.”

“Well, it kinda sounded like you wanted to destroy me anyways.”

Natasha somersaulted backwards as the Mad Titan fired at her with a blast from the gauntlet. She immediately ducked under his arm and then leapt up, kicking him in the face. She landed in a lunge on the ground, but he grabbed her by the throat, hoisting her off the ground as the gauntlet inched closer to her face and the stones shone brighter. Her hands grasped around the one holding her by the neck and Thanos winced at the burning touch of the soul stone.

She fell to the ground as his grip loosened, taking a quick, desperate breath before thrusting up her hand. Natasha felt the wave of power from the soul stone surge throughout her body.

Thanos didn’t get back up as quickly this time. Her whole body was faintly glowing while her veins were highlighted sunset orange.

“The stone controls soul, can alter it, and bring back from the dead.” He grimaced, “A great price must be paid for it. What exactly did it cost you?”

Natasha froze in her steps. Unfortunately, this gave Thanos the advantage of taking her off her guard. He punched her in the gut with the force of a train and lifted her off of the ground with a light blue force surrounding her. She felt her muscles being compressed in on themselves and struggled to breathe.

With one final effort, the stone vibrated in her hand before erupting in rays of light that consumed her world.

The next thing she knew she was on the ground, squinting up at the figure that stood between her and the Mad Titan, who was also aiming an arrow at him.

“Clint?!”

He smirked. She hated that smirk. She despised that smirk. But she was overjoyed to see it. “You didn’t think you could get rid of me that easily?”

Natasha was overwhelmed with questions and emotions, but that would have to wait. The two spies stood across from Thanos as he raised the gauntlet. Clint released the arrow and it spilt, latching onto Thanos’s chest. The electricity shocked him while Clint thrusted Natasha into the air and she wrapped her legs around Thanos’s neck. She placed both batons on either side of his end as the electricity crackled.

Thanos clenched his fist as she phased through him. Clint grabbed her arm and pulled her away just before Thanos crushed the spot where she had been previously standing and the ground erupted around them.

Natasha wrapped her arms around him and laced her hands over his head to shield Clint. Just then, Carol swooped down from the sky and swept the both of them up and away.

“Ah! What is happening?!” Clint cried, clinging onto Natasha.

“Clint! It’s fine! This is Carol. She’s from space. She’s pretty cool.”

Carol nodded, “Hey.”

“H-hey.” Clint smiled shyly.

She set them lightly on the ground. Rhodey, Scott, Kamala, Okoye, and Shuri looked up.

“Oh my God.” Okoye breathed.

“Clint! You’re alive!” Rhodey exclaimed.

Scott turned to Shuri and Kamala, and sighed, “You know, I lost my dear friend Clint.”

Clint rolled his eyes, immediately catching what Scott was referencing, “Quite telling everyone I’m dead!”

“Sometimes I can still hear his voice.” Scott continued.

He laughed, “Good to see you’re still weird.”

Shuri grinned, nudging Kamala in the ribs while Scott turned back to hug Clint.

“Wow, hey Mr. Hawkeye sir!” Kamala beamed, “Woah, this is so cool! I’ve, like, literally met all of my favorite Avengers before I died! I can scratch that one off the bucket list!”

“Friends Tony, Pepper, Wong, and the ghost doctor sorcerer need our help! They’re surrounded by a team of…” Thor trailed off as his eyes fell on Clint, almost as if he didn’t believe what he was seeing, “Friend Clint…? Clint!” He cried, rushing towards them and lifting Clint off the ground in a large hug, “Odin’s beard, you’re alive!”

“Oh my God. Clint, what happened? Are you ok?” Bruce exchanged a glance with Natasha who gave a slight nod, as if to confirm.

“Hooray. The archer is back.” Loki replied.

Everyone turned to look at him. Clint froze and Natasha could almost fell the air chill around him as he tensed.

“Hey, it’s ok. He’s not gonna hurt anyone. He’s on our side… at least for the time being.” Natasha placed her hand on Clint’s shoulder. His eyes remained fixed on Loki.

“Yes, my voice is just naturally sarcastic. I mean, I’m not bursting with joy that you’re back; that would imply I cared about you like your friends do. God forbid. But I suppose the more help we can get the better. Besides, I do feel slightly responsible for, oh you know, corrupting your free will and threatening to destroy everything you love. An apology is probably overdue, although you did try to blow me up, so maybe we could just call it truce. For the record, I was under Thanos’s influence… and I realize you probably don’t care. No offense, but there’s only so much your little arrows are going to do to stop him.”

“Stop. Talking.” Valkyrie groaned.

Clint didn’t say anything.

“How does that work anyways? Do you have an arrow that just keeps producing more arrows? Because that would sure be one fine convenience. What happens when you run out of arrows? If you ever do run out of arrows, I guess, there just seems to be a never-ending supply of them.”

Nothing.

Loki took a step closer, “Alright now, you staring at me is getting creepy. Just, just say something, anything I don’t care. Or at least blink so I know you’re actually alive.”

Silence.

He grasped and shook Clint’s shoulders, “Just say something! You’re freaking me out! I’m begging you Barton! Yell at me or scream at me or _something_.”

Clint slapped him across the face.

Loki slowly turned his head back as a sly look settled on his face and he crossed his arms, “Now that’s just childish.”

He simply smirked.

“All that matters is both of you are still alive.” Bruce placed a hand on Natasha’s and Clint’s shoulders, “There is no predicting what that stone could have done to you.”

“I never told you I used the stone.” Natasha replied.

Bruce gave a soft smile, “Yeah, but I know you.”

Natasha rolled her eyes while a grin tugged at the corners of her mouth.

“Hold up, Natasha, you used an infinity stone against Thanos _and_ used it to bring back Clint?” Rhodey asked and Natasha nodded, “Woah. Dude, that’s pretty badass.”

She grinned while Bruce shook his head, “Yeah, it’s impressive, but no one else is trying it unless you want to get killed.”

“I volunteer as tribute!” Kamala beamed and Shuri slung her arm around her.

“Bro, I think you’re underestimating how suicidal all of us are.”

“Oof, she got you there.” Natasha shrugged at a concerned Bruce.

“Um… no! No one is killing themselves. You two are both beautiful young women and you are both valid and this world needs you more than you know.” Scott wrapped both of them in a big hug and Shuri gave a soft smile.

“It’s alright Scott. We’re just kidding.”

Kamala blinked, “Did Ant-Man just adopt us?”

“Are you kidding?” Clint grinned, “I feel like everyone here is the adopted guardian of any Avenger under the age of twenty.”

“Yeah, also, I’ve had dibs on Kamala since the beginning.” Carol replied, shrugging.

Kamala gasped, “Really?! Captain Marvel adopted me?! Ant-Man adopted me?! Avengers?! Woah.”

Carol grinned, placing her hand on her shoulder, “Of course. I think everyone here would agree you’ve more than earned your spot on the Avengers. Both of you.”

Shuri nudged Kamala in the ribs, who didn’t move, “I think Kamala.exe has stopped working.”

Natasha turned to Thor, “You said Tony needed our help?”

Thor’s eyes widened and he gasped, “Yes! Quickly, we must go!”


	30. Those we've lost

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Tony and Scott are forced against two of the people they love the most...

“Kid…”

The eyes of his suit dilated to bright red specks. Instant kill.

“…Tony!” He turned his head slightly to see Rhodey racing towards him, aiming his weapons at Peter.

“Don’t hurt him!” Tony cried, holding out his hand. He turned back to Peter, tears forming in his eyes, “Pete, you know me.”

He lurched at him, but Tony held up a shield to hold him back. As they continued to fight, Tony continued to fight the grief swelling inside of him. Eventually, one of the Iron Spider’s additional limbs lodged its way between his chest armor, threatening to split it apart.

“Tony!”

“No!” He wasn’t ready to give up on Peter yet.

“Kid look at me. Alright, look at me.” He placed his hand over the limb and slowly pulled it from his suit, “You’re stronger than this. I know what it’s like, but you gotta fight the monster in the closet. Ok? Can you do that for me?”

Peter was taken aback. “Mr…?” Tony swore he heard his slurred mutter before he shook his head, returning to attack.

“Kid!”

“Alright, Tony. That’s enough.” Rhodey took hold of his arm to pull him away from the fight.

“No. No! I’ve almost got him! I had him!” Tony shook off Rhodey’s arm and rushed back.

Peter attacked. He punched and kicked, and God it hurt.

“I’m not… going… to hurt… you…” Tony breathed as Peter’s fist remained suspended above his face.

“Tony!” Pepper cried, rushing over. The others were probably coming too.

It must have been enough to snap Peter back. Tony braced himself for the blow, but it never came. He looked up to see Cap shielding him.

“That’s enough Queens.”

Carol wrapped her arms around him, and he struggled to break free. Tony smiled as Vision appeared as well.

“Well, the gang’s back together.”

“Yeah!” Clint cheered.

Tony was taken slightly aback, then shrugged, “I didn’t think you were really dead. Not for a second.”

Clint crossed his arms, smirking.

He tensed at the sound of a pained scream in the distance and it took him a moment to recognize who it belonged to.

“Oh my God.” Nebula blinked in realization, “We left the shrinking man.”

Clint’s face fell, “No… Scott!”

The color faded from Carol’s face, “I abandoned my boy.”

Rhodey frowned, “You haven’t been on Earth in years. There is no way you know that reference.”

* * *

Scott screamed in agony. He didn’t think anyone could hear him.

“What… the… hell…?”

He gripped both sides of his head and sank to his knees. Maybe the aliens were giving him a migraine? No, Hank had never done this when he claimed Scott’s presence gave him an eternal migraine. Besides, he knew what a migraine was, or at least after this he thought he did, and this was almost a thousand times worse.

He squinted through the pain at the figure approaching him.

“Janet…?”

Of course. The quantum entanglement. At its most convenient, might he add.

“This is-isn’t… y-,” He couldn’t finish his sentence.

“Scott!”

He turned his head weakly in his friends’ direction. Relief flooded him until he saw the figure he immediately recognized looming behind them.

“Behind…” It was too late.

Hope’s attacks were fast and swift. Her once brightly colored gold and navy-blue Wasp suit was now greyscale.

“Oh, come on!” Kamala exclaimed, “Hasn’t my childhood been ruined enough today?”

Scott felt himself being lifted over someone’s shoulder and the pain slowly fade away.

“It’s alright mate! We got you!” Korg said cheerfully.

“Thanks.” Scott replied a little breathlessly as his voice returned. Carol landed next to them.

“Who was that? Are you okay?”

He nodded, “Yeah, that’s Janet. She’s pretty cool… you know, when she’s not being mind controlled by an alien maniac.”

“Get down!”

Scott barely dodged the hit that was fired at him while Carol fired back.

“Oh, by the way, this is probably bad timing, but this is that friend who I thought you’d be friends with… Carol, this is Hope. Hope, this is Carol.”

“Oof, buddy, I don’t think she’s really in the mood to…” Carol was cut off as she shrank, “Wait, where did she-, grah!”

Hope knocked Carol’s head back as she grew below her chin.

“Hope! Snap out of it!”

She shrank back down and so did he. He blocked the punches she threw at him, trying to avoid the need to hit back. Even though this wasn’t really Hope, it didn’t fell right in a million years to hurt his partner.

When they returned to their normal sizes, she pinned him to the ground. She was freezing cold.

She lodged her knee into his throat, choking him.

“Hope.” He wheezed, gripping her arm. She froze and he gasped for air. Scott hadn’t even noticed she had remained frozen until the blow he anticipated never came.

“What the…” The tips of his fingers underneath his gloves were glowing. Just like Janet had been able to do.

“Oh my God… um… fingers don’t, do that?”

“Scott?”

He locked eyes with her and for the first time he actually saw her. The real Hope.

That was when everything faded to white.


	31. The Snap

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The ability to snap and bring everyone back lies with someone, but will they survive it?

“Ok? Scott! Are you ok?!” Clint shook his shoulders.

A great deal of pain crossed his face, but he nodded.

“What the hell just happened?” Carol looked at the woman, Janet, who held up her hand toward them again. He let out a pained cry.

“Lady, I don’t care who you are, but I’m about to blast you to hell!” She almost did, but she didn’t. Not after the pleading look Scott gave her.

“Carol.”

She turned at the sound of her name and then heard Clint shouting. She lashed back around in time to see Scott attack him.

“Woah woah woah! What’s going on?!”

Scott finally looked at her. His eyes were cloudy and unfocused. Something was very wrong.

“Scott! Snap out of it!” Clint yelled.

“It’s Janet.” Carol realized, “She’s got to have some sort of mind control, or telepathy ability.”

“Well, not every convenient for us than, is it?” Clint huffed.

Carol lurched at him, forcing him off of Clint. However, as she did, he shrank between her fingers.

“What? No! Where did he go?”

Clint sighed, “We lost him.” There were two ways he meant that.

She shook her head in defeat. “Did you… were you two friends?” Carol finally asked him.

“Yeah, we became friends during the whole ‘Civil War’ thing, I think you missed that part. We were both under house arrest but kept in touch. Pissed off the FBI. Maybe one too many times. God, it’s probably been a year since we talked with S.H.E.I.L.D. reforming and now Thanos.” He explained.

“From my experience, things only get more crazy.”

Another alien with dark hair and glowing antennas approached them with two more figures, one Carol immediately recognized.

“Fury.” She and Clint muttered at the same time before turning to each other, “You know him?”

Carol nodded first, “Yeah, you could say I’m his emergency contact.”

“Oh that’s cool. Wait… you were that chick in the 90s that blew up all those spaceships, weren’t you?”

She nodded, “Yep. That was me.”

“Woah! That was totally badass! I heard about that, man that’s amazing! Oh, hold on, behind you.” Clint fired an arrow and an outrider fell to the ground behind her.

“Thanks man.” Then she groaned, her fists lighting up again, “Are there seriously more of these things?”

Clint removed the arrow and Carol thrust Fury to the ground as he began to open fire. The other figured pulled her gun as well. Her dark hair was pulled back in a bun and she wore dark clothes that were faded from the ashes. Carol set her flying with a blast of energy.

The dark-haired alien grabbed the end of Clint’s bow and swiftly kicked him in the chest. He twisted the bow around her, and she flipped in the air before hitting the ground.

A low hum carried through the air and Carol turned, looking up to find an army of ships sailing through the air towards them.

“Perfect.” She muttered sarcastically.

“Carol!” The voice again.

“Strange?”

Stephen materialized in the air. He raised his hand beyond the hills covered in swarming outriders, “Beyond those hills. That’s where Tony is. We only have one shot at stopping this and we need you. You need to find him and the others over there.”

Carol nodded slowly, cautiously optimistic. Could they really fix everything? Was this it? Was this the endgame? “Ok. Clint, let’s go.”

He sighed at the hills of outriders ahead of them, “Yeah, but how exactly are we gonna get through all of that?”

She closed her eyes and lifted off the ground. Energy surged around her body and she blazed over the hills. She then soared into the air and raced back down, an explosion sending them flying as she hit the ground.

Carol flew back to an awestruck Clint. “Uh, yeah. That’ll work.”

“Hurry, they’ll be back.”

She and Clint took off with Strange hovering beside them and ended up meeting the others halfway.

“Oh my gosh you guys are ok! You just took off, and the rest of us tried to come after you but we got stuck with all the outriders…” Kamala trailed off, looking between them, “Where’s Scott?”

Carol glanced down sadly as Clint explained, “He’s… he’s lost. He was being controlled by a woman named Janet.”

“It’s ok. What we’re about to do might be able to save him.” Tony held out his arm, the Iron-Gauntlet forming around it, and he pulled it off, “I say we get the hell on with it. Right here, right now. Snap and bring everybody back.”

“Except…” Bruce exchanged a worried glance with Tony, “The person who does it may not come back.”

“I’ll do it.” Everyone replied casually at the same time. Except for Loki.

“Are you all alright?”

“Yeah, I think we need to at least consider the survivability of this.” Steve suggested solemnly, “Whoever is most likely to survive; there’s not no point in losing anyone else.”

Tony nodded, “Agreed. The collective use of the stones creates a cosmic power surge.”

“Pre exposure to a similar surge of power _could_ form a resistance to its full effect.” Shuri finished.

“Kind of like a flu shot.” Kamala realized.

Carol knew what this meant. There was no other way.

“Nearly twenty years ago, I found out the source of my powers was linked to the Tesseract, or you know, space stone. They came after I was caught in the middle of a blast from its energy.” She sighed, “If what you’re saying is true, then I have the best chance at surviving this.”

Kamala’s face fell, but she nodded. She wrapped Carol in a tight hug. Carol lightly pat her back.

“And if you don’t? Come on, you’ve just got your life back.” Pepper tried to convince her otherwise.

And of course, she had a fair point, “Yeah, but I’m also the only one who does have an entire full one to lose. I lost it before, and yeah it sucks, but this is probably supposed to be me getting back at it. You all have each other, your family. I couldn’t have you lose one of your own-,”

“Ok, I’m gonna need you to shut your big ass mouth for a minute.” Natasha began, cutting Carol off, “After this hell we’ve all been through, Carol, you’re one of us.”

Thor nodded in agreement, “If you didn’t know that before, I hope you do now.”

As it turns out, she had found something. Something she needed to protect with her life. And it was time for that now. That was when an infuriated Thanos finally charged to show his full fury upon them.

“Avengers!” Steve cried as all though who were capable of formed a shield around them to block the power blast from the gauntlet. ‘Blast’ was an understatement. It was nearly an explosion and its heat surrounded them on all sides.

“Carol!” Tony called, holding out the gauntlet, “Now or never!”

Without a second thought, Carol took it and nodded. She blasted off the ground, feeling the burn seconds later and after she was a good couple of hundred feet above the fire. It was now only a matter of seconds before Thanos looked up and saw her, realizing what they were going to do.

She closed the gauntlet around her hand and a faint cry escaped her as she winced from its power. This better work. The power seemed to drain her and freeze her in place. It was suddenly an incredible effort to put together her fingers and snap. Just when it seemed like she had it, Scott grew back into his normal size right in front of her and kicked her in the face.

It completely took her off guard as she stumbled through the air downwards and he continued to attack. Then she nearly avoided being disintegrated by Thanos’s gauntlet.

She swore while at least trying to maintain her position in the air and not crash land into the ground. She shut her eyes, but then all that stopped. Carol was hovering in the air and she opened one eye to see what had happened.

“Hurry!” Hope Van Dyne exclaimed, holding back a struggling Scott in the air beside her. She was still ashy and grey, but the life had seemed to return to her eyes. Carol didn’t have time to ask how or why but followed her first instinct as the same blast from before seemed to reach her in slow motion.

She held up the gauntlet in front of her face and in one swift motion, snapped her fingers.


	32. Avengers Assemble

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Everyone is back and for the first time in a long time... Steve calls the Avengers to assemble.

Even the air around them seemed to shudder. There was a bright, blinding flash of light from where Carol was. Steve looked towards Thanos. He looked both confused and anxious. Despite carrying the power of the universe on his shoulders, he almost looked powerless. Was that it?

“Oh my God!” Rhodey rushed up into the air and caught Carol who was descending at a great speed. As he came back to the ground with her arm over his shoulders, Steve noticed how incredibly quiet it was. Not an eerie quiet like when the planet had been decimated; it was quite the opposite.

Carol seemed about half conscious and gave a hoarse cough. She shook her arm and the Iron Gauntlet clattered to the ground.

“Are you ok?” Valkyrie questioned concernedly, lightly brushing the hair out of her face.

Carol gave a weak smile, “…fine.” Was her quiet, almost inaudible reply. She turned to Rhodey and nodded, as if to say thank you.

Kamala gave her a tight hug.

“Woah, easy kid. I don’t think she’s ready for…” Bruce began but Carol shook her head and hugged her back.

“Did… did it work?” Nebula asked, looking around them. Steve noticed that Strange was missing. The peaceful quiet slowly began to be drowned out by the low growl of outriders that gathered behind Thanos. The Avengers stood together defensively as he loomed towards them.

“If we fight him in this state, we’re going in shorthanded.” Okoye informed.

Steve sighed, “Yeah, I feel like I’m dealt that hand a lot actually.”

“What’s stopping him from snapping everything back with his gauntlet?” Shuri asked.

“He’ll weaken himself. Perhaps he’s learned from last time… he wants to finish us. Once and for all.” Thor replied.

“Then let’s get him.” Steve held up his shield determinedly, “Let’s finish _him_ once and for all.”

Valkyrie pointed at Steve, “Is he always like this? _Let’s run into the face of danger even though we have no chance of survival but hey! Optimism!_”

Tony grinned, “Yep. Pretty much.”

Kamala shrugged, “I mean, I’m down with that.”

Natasha, Tony, Thor, Bruce, and Steve each took at stone from the destroyed gauntlet and this time Clint took the reality stone for Carol.

Steve lead them into their approach to Thanos, but the Mad Titan suddenly stopped and seemed to look beyond them. Steve froze, not entirely believing the voice that he heard behind him.

“Hey Cap. On your left.”

Sam soared above him. He seemed to be vibrant again and all the color had returned to him. He doubled back and landed beside Steve, a warm smile on his face.

He felt a hand clap on his shoulder. He turned to see Bucky, shaking his head with a knowing grin on his face.

“Taking on an army of outriders and a certified psychopath, punk? I knew you had really taken all the stupid with you.”

Normally, Steve would have fired back a snarky response, but this time, tears swelled in his eyes.

More and more of the heroes Thanos had manipulated emerged from behind them until they all stood together.

“It worked.” Gamora breathed, squeezing her sister’s hand.

They all stood side by side with their loved ones and allies. They really had undone it all. They did it. However, there was still one more battle left to fight.

Steve turned to Tony, “Are the odds better for you now?”

He nodded, “Yeah, I think this will do.”

“Now hold on just a second.” An orange, swirling portal opened up in the air and Stephen Strange stepped through, “We’ve got more coming.”

Several more portals opened reveling more sorcerers and they, Strange, and Wong, used their combined magic to open up dozens more. Some were larger than others and some were in the air rather than on the ground. Ships and armies emerged from each one.

“Woah, uh, ok. Is this everyone?” Tony asked, gazing around at the portals, “Wouldn’t want anyone to miss out on the first annual ‘kick Thanos’s big purple ass’ block party.”

“Hello again, Captain.” Sharon Carter nodded. She held the original red, white, and blue shield by her side, “Stark has given specific instructions ‘for when the time is necessary, please return to Steve Rogers’.”

Steve turned to Tony, unsure, but he nodded and grinned back, “Agent 13, if you’ll do the honors.”

Sharon held out the shield and he accepted it, “Welcome back Captain.”

He smiled. Then all the sudden Thor cried out, “Odin’s beard! Jane?! Is that you?”

A brunette woman dressed in what looked like traditional Asgardian battle armor descended from the sky, wielding Thor’s hammer, “Thor? Wow, you look so different! New haircut?”

He laughed, “I could say the same about you! This is insane! What happened?”

She sighed, “It’s a really long story. I fixed up your hammer by the way.” She tossed it in the air then caught it, “There were reports of it shattered in Norway. You really should be more careful.”

He rolled his eyes, “Hilarious. I’ll have you know my sister broke it.”

“You have a sister?”

“I know, right?” Loki chimed in, “Odin managed to dodge that one for quite some time.”

“Ah yes, he’s on our side now.” Thor responded to the concerned look on Jane’s face, “At least for the time being.”

“Oookaaay I think I’m having a fangirl-related pain attack.” Kamala muttered to herself.

The Dora Milaje lead by Okoye joined them as well. T’Challa nodded to Steve and Shuri let out a gasp before joining her brother.

Scott and Hope both reappeared at their normal sizes. A girl in a white armored suit with dark hair and orange tips stepped forward with them. Not to mention an orange van with a logo reading ‘X-Con’ had pulled up as well.

The group referred to as the Guardians of the Galaxy formed together and held out their weapons.

“Mr. Stark!” An energetic voice called out. The Spider kid from Queens landed in a lunge next to Tony, “Oh my gosh, Mr. Stark, that was crazy! Like, like I’m pretty sure I died! I got all dusty and then, well I’m not 100% sure what we’re doing here but like Thanos was all mind controlling everybody and I’m so sorry I hit you! I really hope it wasn’t too hard, I’m so sorry, it won’t happen again. Well, actually I don’t know if I can exactly promise that without jinxing it because I feel like then I’ll probably get mind controlled again which I really hope I don’t, it’s not very fun.”

And that’s when Tony hugged the kid and his ramble was cut off with a surprised, “oh,” before he closed his eyes and hugged him back.

“Goose!”

Carol’s voice was beginning to return and even though it was still rather faint, Steve could hear the excitement in it as she scooped up the orange tabby cat. However, the most shocking thing about it was that Nick Fury _actually smiled_ and scratched the cat behind the ears.

This was quite the crowd. Steve looked around at all the people who had been resurrected and came together to finish the war and smiled.

“Avengers!” He exclaimed as they all formed an offensive line to fight, “Assemble!”


	33. Back from the Dead

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Peter Parker is back in action and just about as excited (and confused) as ever. Scott Lang is trying to figure out what the heck is happening right now (and Carol likes to be a pain).

Peter’s heart felt like it was pumping adrenaline through him at a million miles a minute. Ironically, he had never felt more alive in his life until he had just been brought back from the dead.

Besides, there was the fact to address that _Mr. Stark _had just legit actually _hugged him_.

And now they were fighting a bunch of alien people who were actually kind of scary looking and the wrinkly chinned grape dude again. Peter was starting not to like this guy, but he was practically a walking meme. Seriously, Peter wasn’t entirely sure how long he’d been gone, but if the internet had found out about Thanos, there were bound hundreds of memes. He’d have to look into that later.

He swung above the creepy alien things and shot a web in its face. It roared as he attached to it with two more webs and launched himself up, kneeing it in the chin.

Mr. Stark flew above him and fired at the creepy alien things.

“Thanks Mr. Stark!” Peter waved up at him.

He landed on the ground next to him and his helmet disappeared. He wore a warm, happy sad kind of smile.

“I missed you kid. Welcome home.”

He grinned, “It’s good to be back.” He kinda wished that wasn’t his reply because it sounded a little cringy in his head, but then again there was a lot of other stuff going through his head right now.

It was good to be back though. He didn’t remember much of his time in the soul stone; it was just short visions of orange and gold. The scary part was when they got out. But they weren’t really _out_. Everything Thanos had forced them to do was a grey blur, but he remembered seeing Tony’s face. It was like something had been plugged into his brain and he had lost all control.

He shook off the feeling as Mr. Stark called him, “Alright kid, let’s go. There are more coming.”

They took off and the extra gold limbs emerged from Peter’s suit. He sliced through them until he felt himself lift off the ground.

“Ah! What’s happening?!” The creepy alien things swarmed over him and Peter let out a straggled cry.

“Hold on! I got you bro!” There was a loud thud and they began to scurry, but a… large hand? grabbed them and crushed them into the ground.

“Hey, I know you! You’re Spider-Man!” A girl with dark hair and warm brown eyes beamed, “I’ve seen all your YouTube videos! You’re amazing!”

“Oh.” Peter felt himself blush, “Uh, thanks. I’m, I’m Peter.” He held out his hand.

“Kamala.” She grinned, shaking his hand.

“Wow, that’s a really cool name. Thanks for, you know, not letting me get eaten.”

“Any time.”

“Hey! Behind you!” Peter and Kamala turned just in time to see the two outriders that jumped to attack them get blasted in the face.

Peter gasped, “Woah, I know you!”

Shuri shifted a little, “Oh… yeah. People actually say that a lot-,”

“Your vines are great!”

Shuri blinked, “My, my vines? You watch my vines?”

“Yes! You’re PrincessShuriofWakanada right?”

“Yes! Wow, you watch my vines!”

“Yeah! How else do you think I’d know you?” He paused, “Ah, wait. I’m an idiot.”

She laughed, “No, it’s fine.”

“I am Groot!”

A tree waved to them. An actual, legit tree _waved_ at them and _talked_ and, you know what? Peter wasn’t even surprised anymore at this point.

Kamala waved back, “Hey! I’m Kamala. This is Peter and Shuri. Oh shoot! I mean, Spider-Man! I mean, grah, I just reveled your secret identity.”

“No, it’s alright. I think every here actually knows my name is Peter or at least knows I’m fifteen.” He shrugged.

Shuri gasped, “There are four of us.”

“…Yes.”

“And we’re all teenagers.”

“Yes…?”

“So… we some form the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.”

Kamala grinned, “Yes!”

“Let’s do it!” Peter beamed.

“I am Groot!”

The four teenagers then took off across the battlefield in a Naruto run.

* * *

It kind of felt like he had woken up from a bad dream. But in the time Janet-being-mind-controlled-by-Thanos had taken over, a lot apparently had happened. Carol snapped her fingers, bringing back half the population, no big deal.

It was a huge deal. Scott was kind of in shock because it didn’t exactly feel real yet. Not the, ‘it’s-too-good-to-be-true’ kind of unreal but the he couldn’t believe it had actually worked kind of unreal.

Scott watched Hope as she fought against the outriders. She was amazing, and not to mention a total badass. Every time she looked at him, his cheeks burned up and his heart somersaulted in his chest, not to sound cheesy or anything. He was constantly getting distracted for loving glances at her because he couldn’t stop convincing himself that she was back. Also, having a partner who could ruthlessly fight alien monster things sent to murder them all was one of the greatest things in the world.

Multiple shots were fired taking out the outrider that was about to rip him apart behind him, “Scott, focus less on my daughter and more on not getting eaten!” Hank called out at him from the open backseat of Luis’s van.

Scott gave a sheepish nod, “Yeah, alright.”

He shrank down and fought his way through them. Most of them hadn’t even been able to touch him until he was sliced across the arm and felt a stinging pain. He looked down at the torn area on his suit and blood that blossomed from the cut on his arm. Scott cursed and clapped his hand over it.

He didn’t notice the outrider that lurched at him until Hope appeared in front of him and fired a blast at it, causing it to shrink down.

She turned to him and smiled, “Hey.”

And… yeah. The smart and/or smooth thing to have done in this situation would have been just to say something back but seeing as Scott considered himself to be neither of these, he opened his mouth, but no words came out.

“Your arm ok?”

He nodded and finally worked up the sense to say something, “Yeah, oh yeah it’s fine, just a scratch is all… Hey.”

And… of course he finally says hey back now. But Hope seemed used to his social awkwardness by now.

Ava stuck her fist through an outrider’s throat, and it sputtered before crumbling to the ground.

“I’m just going to stay around you two, I don’t care if you were just having a moment or whatever, but I don’t want to have to talk to anyone else, so.”

“Come on Ava, some of these guys are really cool once you get to know them!”

“Scott, this is war against a murderous alien dude! I don’t think socializing with fellow psychopaths is that high on the priority list.”

“You brought it up!”

“No, I said I don’t want to deal with anybody so I’m sticking with you guys.”

Hope sighed, “Ava, go make some friends.”

“I’m an adult! You can’t tell me to go make friends!”

“There’s this guy, Vision. He can fade through walls and stuff like you. Or there’s Bucky and Nebula who were both brainwashed into fighting for the bad guys…”

Ava groaned, “Nevermind. I’m going to bother Luis and Darcy. You missed this part, but we picked up this chick and then her science buddy, she’s the one flying around with the Thor hammer. Anyways.” She turned and became invisible.

Hope rolled her eyes and Scott shook his head grinning.

“Well, I guess we should probably get back to it…”

“I thought you were gone.” He began to flood out, “I, I didn’t know if we were going to be able to get you guys back, I thought we might never see each other… I missed you Hope.” His voice cracked a little when he said it, “You and, and Cassie… I thought that was it over and you were gone.”

She put her arms around him, and he leaned into her shoulder, “Hey, hey… It’s ok. We’ll be ok.”

Scott let out a shaky breath and nodded. He hugged her back and God it felt so good. When they finally let go, he smiled.

“I love you.”

Hope squeezed his hands, “I love you too.” She smirked, “Alright princess, let’s go kick some alien ass.”

The two ran back into the fight and Scott turned into Gi-Ant Man.

“Hey!”

Scott turned at the sound of the familiar voice to see Carol perched on his shoulder, “Hey! You’re alright!”

She nodded, “Yeah, yeah I’m fine. Just a little winded is all. This feels weird, it’s usually the other way around.”

“Yeah, I don’t go big as much, holy sh-!”

There were screams as Thanos’s fleets swooped down from the sky and opened fire. Carol sighed.

“You… you sure you’re up for this?” He asked concernedly.

“Yeah, totally sure. Totally sure.” She began to glow, “This guy is literally pissing me off more by the second.”

Scott punched a flow flying ship out of the sky and ripped another in half. Carol sped through the sky and straight through aircrafts leaving them in fiery explosions behind her.

He grinned, “You actually, literally, just took out his entire fleet of ships.”

She shrugged, “And the moral of the story is: don’t piss me off.”

“Hang on one second, I’m just gonna…” Scott trailed off before he shrank back down. Carol lowered to the ground next to him, her face looking just a little faint from blowing up the ships, but much livelier than before.

“So… Hope Van Dyne?” She smirked, looking beyond him. He turned to see she wasn’t too far from them.

He blushed, “Uh, yeah?”

“No, she’s cute. I get it. I would totally make out with that face.”

Scott groaned, “I’m literally begging you to stop.”

“Stop being gay? Jeez Scott, what are you, homophobic? I can be into however I’m into.” She teased.

“What, no! I’m not, I don’t judge people like that! And for the record, I’m bisexual anyways.” He sighed, “No, yeah. She’s, she’s amazing.”

“Aww, somebody’s in wuv.” Carol mischievously grinned.

“I swear to God if you-,”

“Hi Scott’s girlfriend!” She cried at the top of her lungs waving to Hope. Hope turned and gave a confused wave back before blasting an outrider’s face off. Scott on the other hand, had just felt his cheeks turn redder than his suit.

“You look like a tomato.”

He rolled his eyes, “I’ll get you back. Someday when you’ve just been a full-on awkward mess in front of your girlfriend, I’ll get you back.”

“We’ll see about that.”

“Alright, you’re clearly fine. Let’s get back to it.”

Scott fought alongside Hope as Carol soared above them. Ava had teamed up with Bucky, Loki, and Nebula. Then Luis fricking ran over the outriders with the van.

He knocked on the window and Luis rolled it down, “Hey buddy, you ok?”

Luis looked petrified, “If you’re about to tell me to get out of this van I’m about to tell you you’re delusional.”

“No, you’re good, just you know…” Scott put his hand on his arm, “Remember to breathe.”

Luis nodded quickly, “Yeah, it’s just, my heart’s kind of racing you know? I think the adrenaline’s really going. I feel so alive, even though I’m probably gonna die. Man, is it always like this? Fighting the bad guys and stuff?”

“Yeah, I guess so. This is kind of crazy though so it’s alright.”

“Ah, screw it!” Hank called from the back of the van. Scott and Luis exchanged a glance when they heard the backdoor of the van shut.

“Screw? Screw what? Hank? Hank! Hank, where are you going?” Scott raced to the back of the van only to be shot down.

That was dramatic; it wasn’t really as much _shot_ as it was pushed to the ground by Hope, out of the way of an outrider he didn’t see lurch at him. Her blast went straight through its chest.

He looked up at her, she was still leaning over him to protect him from the outrider, so they were pretty close. Her eyes met his for a moment. She nodded and he grinned. Hope pulled him up off the ground and he heard Hank’s audible groan.

“Really? Are you kidding me? I just, _just_, got back from the dead and I’m not dealing with this right now! God, right back at it.”

“Aw, give them a break, Hank. I think it’s cute.” Janet replied, causing both Hope and Scott to turn away, blushing.

“Mom.” Hope shook her head.

“Ms. Van Dyne, I couldn’t agree more.” Carol beamed. Perfect timing.

He sighed, “Carol.”

Janet smiled, “I don’t believe we’ve met.”

“I’m Carol. I’m friends with your buddy.”

Scott gestured to Carol, “I’ve literally never met this woman in my life.”

She rolled her eyes and grinned, “Yeah, alright.”

“Mom, are you alright?” Hope asked concernedly, gently touching her mom’s arm.

She snapped out of whatever pained daze she had been in and nodded. Everyone else wasn’t so convinced. Janet looked between Hope and Hank.

“Do either of you remember anything while Thanos was in control of our actions?”

Hope’s face fell as she shook her head, “Not really.” She glanced at Carol, “Just a little bit towards the end.”

“The quantum entanglement, it must have overridden his control…” She muttered.

Scott didn’t have a good feeling of where this was going, “So, what does that mean?”

“Depending on however long you were stuck in the quantum realm, well scratch that; time works differently in there. And it wasn’t me, so you must’ve been the one to release Hope from his control… That means, somehow, you’ve developed the same quantum mutation I did when I was down there.”

Well, at least the hand glowing made sense. So… what else was new?


	34. Guardians Assemble / Alright Ladies

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Thor assembles the Guardians of the Galaxy as Peter Quill claims he can't actually do that but he also makes a new Earth friend who also likes 70/80's rock. Then, all the female Avengers team up against Thanos and the challenges he has in store.

“Guardians assemble!” Thor exclaimed, raising his axe.

Rocket shot him a confused glance then turned to the rest of the guardians, “Is he allowed to say that? Legally?”

Quill glared at Thor, “That doesn’t even make sense. We’re all standing right here.”

Gamora rolled her eyes and placed her hand on Quill’s shoulder, “Just… just let him.”

He sighed and nodded.

Mantis fought alongside Nebula and Drax seeing as he had an obvious man crush on the ‘pirate angel man’ attacked the outriders near them and Thor.

Some sort of swelling feeling was caught in his throat. He hadn’t even realized he was crying.

“I am Groot?”

Rocket wiped his eyes, “No, I’m fine. There’s just, you know… something in my eye. Dammit the outriders kicking up all this dust, right?”

“I am Groot.”

Groot wrapped his branches around him in a hug. Rocket sighed and pat him back.

“Alright, that’s enough…”

He felt Mantis hug him too, “The puppy shouldn’t be sad.”

“I’m not sad!” He exclaimed and the rest of the guardians turned towards him, “It’s just, dammit, I watched Groot die! And then… the only family I ever had was gone. It felt like I lost everything; I thought I’d lost you.”

Nebula nodded and Mantis gave her a tight hug as Drax squeezed her shoulder.

Gamora gave a sad smile and knelt down next to Rocket, “It’s ok now. I always thought having a lot to lose was a weakness, but in the end in makes us so much stronger. And we all have each other right now, even though it won’t be that way forever, we have right now.”

Rocket couldn’t help but notice that Quill’s eyes looked a little puffy, but he wasn’t going to tease him about it now, “My mom used to tell me that people are never really gone, that they just take a different form with the stars and even though we can’t see them, they’re there. I don’t think we’ll ever really be gone either.” He added.

Rocket smiled. He missed his idiots so much.

“Aww! That was so beautiful!” Thor beamed.

Quill turned red realizing Thor had been listening the entire time.

“Alright, alright. That’s enough feelings for today.” Rocket rolled his eyes but smiled.

“Besides, we haven’t won yet.” Nebula agreed exchanging a glance with Gamora, “There’s still Thanos.”

Gamora drew her sword, “Right. Let’s go.”

The guardians rushed back into battle. Apparently, there was another Thor lady with a hammer and sometimes she and Thor would trade between Stormbreaker and the hammer. She seemed pretty cool.

Rocket snarled, firing at the outriders and clawed one across the face that got too close. He heard Quill curse as an outrider tackled him to the ground and tried to devour him. A blast from his gun went through its face and he pushed it off of him.

“How you like that? _Hit me with your best shot_!” He obnoxiously sang the lyrics of one of his songs on that Zune thingy. It would have been bad enough had someone not finished the next part.

“_Why don’t ya hit me with your best shot_?”

A confused look flickered over Quill’s face as he turned to see who it was. It was actually that ant guy from earlier. And now he looked kind of embarrassed.

“Sorry, yeah. Great song though!” He waved awkwardly.

“You, you know that song?” Quill replied as if he couldn’t believe it. Rocket couldn’t believe it. The two biggest idiots in the galaxy were about to become best friends.

“Yeah, everyone knows that song! It’s Pat Benatar so.”

“Woah! I’m sorry it’s just, nobody in space knows that, or any of the music I listen to really.”

“Seriously? But 80s rock is the greatest!”

Quill’s eyes lit up with excitement, “Exactly! Oh my gosh! Somebody gets it!”

“Oh no.” A brunette lady with a yellow and blue suit that kind of looked like the ant guy’s suit in a way muttered.

Gamora sliced an outrider in half with her sword and shot her a glance, “Is yours an idiot too?”

She nodded.

Gamora sighed, “You have no idea how much I’m relating to you on a spiritual level right now.”

“Same. Does yours always get his ass into trouble or is it just the pop culture references?”

“Yes! There was this one time he challenged Ronan the accuser to a dance off while Ronan had an infinity stone!”

“Really? Oh my gosh! Scott pretended to be a whale to catch a guy who stole our lab on a boat and then almost drowned!”

Gamora smiled, “That’s insane. I’m Gamora.”

She grinned, “Hope. We should totally get a coffee sometime.”

“I have no idea what that is but ok!”

“It’s an Earth thing; I think you’d like it.”

“And Queen!” Quill shouted loudly.

“I know! They’ve written at least twelve legendary songs!” Scott beamed.

Just then the spider kid swang in from nowhere, “I heard someone mention Queen! My algebra teacher always plays Queen music while we’re working and it’s so amazing!”

“Wow that’s great! I wish I had had teachers in school that would do that.”

Rocket, Gamora, Hope, and Tony Stark all exchanged a concerned glance.

…

Carol felt they she had nearly made full recovery now. Perfect timing too, because a certain Mad Titan was standing right in front of her.

He was down a fleet of ships and half his outrider army. That was all behind her now. If he wasn’t finished, all this was for nothing.

He opened his mouth to say something, but Carol had had enough of his grim speeches. She lurched at him like a comet and scorched the ground in her trail.

She beat Thanos furiously and went to knee him in the chin, but he caught her leg in air. She threw her fist at him but her caught it and slowly forced her down. He headbutt her, but she didn’t flinch. Finally, he hit her in the chest with the gauntlet and the heat from the stones burned her and she fell back.

Thanos approached her as she steadied one arm on the ground.

“I’m not looking to kill anyone, but the universe must be balanced. And you and your team are going to have to go down while half the population is spared because you’re unwilling to accept this change for the better. You’ll always be stuck in the past, the naïve past, and you’ll sadly have to die for that. Starting with you.”

Carol tried her other arm, but it collapsed under her weight. She huffed, trying to push off the ground, half accepting it was too late.

“Hey! That’s my space Aunt you son of a bitch!”

Carol looked up to see a young woman charge from the sky and the Mad Titan’s head snap back as she hit him. She glowed a bright, radiant white and then let all the energy out on him.

When she touched the ground, she looked like herself again and looked strikingly familiar.

“Aunt Carol!” She threw herself into her arms.

“Monica? I don’t believe it! Look at you! You’re so grown up!” Carol beamed, “Wow! And you were just glowing?!”

She smiled, brushing her cornbraids out of her face, “Yeah, it’s a long story. S.H.E.I.L.D. plus superpower accident equals this. I always said I wanted to glow like you when I was little!”

“Lieutenant Trouble, you were a goddess before the energy blasts. Now let’s finish this guy.” She smirked.

Thanos rose but now there were six almost two hundred-foot machines? Creatures? Things behind him. They resembled giant hounds, and each a faint, faded color of each of the infinity stones. They gave a low, menacing growl.

“Um, where the hell did those come from?” Monica looked about at the infinity hounds, “Alright, if I can absorb a blast from his gauntlet, I can use it against him, but…”

“Destiny comes all the same.” Thanos closed his fist, “And I must complete mine. Whatever it takes.”

“Not today purple Shrek!” Kamala appeared next to her with Shuri, Okoye, and Nakia.

A bolt of lightning struck through the sky and Thanos held up the gauntlet to stop it as Thor, Jane, landed next to Monica.

“Alright ladies!” Pepper called alongside Wanda, Natasha, Maria Hill and Sharon Carter.

Hope appeared at her normal size and Ava appeared out of thin air alongside Nebula, Gamora, and Mantis.

Carol felt a hand on her shoulder and turned to see Valkyrie giving her a knowing smile, her sword drawn. There was something about her made Carol’s heart flutter.

Moreover, this felt especially powerful. Even though Carol didn’t know every one of these women personally, it meant a lot that they all stood together. It was almost like a superhero sisterhood (a name Kamala would have probably come up with).

The women warriors tore at Thanos and his hounds. Kamala grew as tall as the yellow one and punched it in the face as it let out a pained growl.

“Carol! Cover me!” Hope exclaimed as she flew above.

Carol fired at the purple one that tore its claws through the air. Monica then flew at it at full force and sent it backwards. Hope blasted the creature in the face, and it turned away for a moment from the intensity of the blare, but then roared back. Carol flew directly at it, raining down energy blasts on it. She joined Hope and they took it on together. They flew at it and punched it in the jaw, sending it tumbling. Carol gave Hope a high five.

The orange hound growled as Wanda lifted it off the ground in a red haze and threw it at the blue one.

Natasha, Maria, and Sharon fired at the red creature and it crashed to the ground due to its wounds. Valkyrie and Gamora assisted them in finishing it off with their swords.

Ava, Nebula, and Shuri helped Kamala take down the yellow one. Jane summoned a great bolt of lightning that shook through the purple hound and Okoye wounded it with her spear while Nakia with her discs.

Pepper fired at the blue creature carrying Mantis. Mantis then leapt on top of it and cried, “Sleep!” as it collapsed to the ground.

In one final attempt, Thanos fired a beam at Monica, however, she absorbed it and rainbow-colored light surrounded her. All the female Avengers stood around her and there was a fiery intensity in the air.

A look of shocked realization crossed Thanos’s face as Peter Parker exclaimed what they were all thinking.

“Haha! You’re fricking screwed now!”

Monica’s blow was so powerful, it sent him into a crater in the field, but even in the distance, he still managed to get back up.


	35. The Endgame

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> This is it... The Avengers come together for the endgame to defeat Thanos once and for all.

Something needed to be done. Now.

Steve glanced at Tony. They knew what they had to do. It wasn’t going to be easy, and neither of them necessarily wanted to do it, but part of the journey was the end.

Tony flew in the air above and Steve ran after him, followed by Clint. Hulk roared and trampled the ground beneath him as he landed. A crackle of thunder and a bolt of lightning sliced through the sky and Thor appeared beside them. The ends of Natasha’s batons sparked with the same fury in her eyes. And before them all stood Thanos.

He saw them approach and held up the gauntlet, his fist closed. It seemed to take a minute before he placed his fingers together, prepared to snap.

They stopped despite that being what he wanted them to do. Thanos was not one to bluff. But their advantage was that he was one to make a point.

“I hope they remember you…” Despite his grim tone he almost looked… regretful, “I am inevitable.”

“Well we are…” Tony began, glancing at Steve.

“… The Avengers.” He finished.

This was it. The others didn’t have to do this. They didn’t all have to go. But the knowing glances and nods he got from the rest of the team proved to him that they had already made their decision.

Each holding an infinity stone and each other’s hands… the original six Avengers used the stones to blast Thanos to hell.

* * *

Wow. That was it. It felt like forever ago… taking on the shield was one thing, but being a part of this team, it was family. After regaining some sort of life after being frozen in the ice… it had started off as just an idea, but it had become so much more now; it was the most important thing in the universe to him.

It just seemed ironically fitting to die beside the people who started it all. However, it was just so hard to believe it was done. It wasn’t a tragic end… it was just a new beginning. This was their endgame, but it seemed like the world was going to be left in good hands.

Actually, well, speaking of good hands…

* * *

Just before his world was entirely consumed by light, something shifted. Steve realized that his body had nearly crumpled to ash, but it was almost as if the infinity stones were spreading their power out… but through what?

Steve glanced around to see everyone on the battlefield had joined hands and was sharing the power of the stones so no one else had to die. This was the most touching thing in the universe; it was these moments that determined a good soldier and these actions that determined a good hero.

So, this was the one in fourteen million. This was how they won.

He turned to Tony, who was smiling… he wondered how long it had been since he had. Nevertheless, he missed it and it caused him to smile too.

The next series of events seemed to happen in a sort of blur probably due to his shock. Once Thanos’s army crippled to dust, they contained the infinity stones in nanotech capsules from Tony’s suit. Friends and family helped their wounded to their feet and for once, everyone seemed able to take a moment to breath. However, there was still one thing…

Steve remembered seeing Thanos’s form in a heap on the ground, looking well… powerless.

“This is outside my usual paygrade… what exactly do you do with maniacs like this?” Clint asked, staring at the Mad Titan with an unreadable look on his face.

“I’m getting a little sick and tired of always being the ‘bigger person’ or whatever here.” Tony replied, “We kill this guy, and what? He’s killed _millions_.”

Gamora sighed, “We… we can’t allow him to go on. He’s like us. He’s stubborn and he won’t give up; not until he regains his strength and puts us all through this again.”

And she was absolutely right. It was just hard to believe that Thanos was lying here before them looking so… _dead_. Like it wasn’t even imaginable that this was the guy who moved planets and killed half the universe.

Thor nodded and placed his hand on Nebula’s shoulder, “Then I believe we all know who should do the honors.”

“Yeah kid. If anyone deserves to make their son of a bitch father pay, it’s you.” Tony agreed and Gamora squeezed her hand.

Nebula looked between them and nodded slowly.

She approached him, her baton gripped in one hand and her other hand balled into a fist. Her face was dark; angry but mature enough not to let that get in her way.

“Daughter…” His raspy voice carried like a dying wish on the wind and Nebula shuddered a little a this, “You… wouldn’t… kill… you’re… father…”

She tilted her head at this long overdue sympathy which only made her more focused, “Goodbye, Thanos.”

And just like that he was gone.


	36. Several Months Later...

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Kamala looks back over the last few months before Avengers 'Initiation'.

_ Several Months Later… _

“Alright, Kamala here! I’m never gonna be able to show anybody this, but whatever. Imma do it anyways.

So, I thought I’d give the real scoop after, you know, everything. Starting with… I’m a mother trucking Avenger! I said that kind of loud… I hope Ammi didn’t hear me… But well, so far, it’s been amazing! Iron Man, Cap, Thor, Black Widow, Hulk, and Hawkeye were in medical therapy for a while from directly using the infinity stones, and of course we all visited them just about every day! Especially Peter, who I actually think did check on Tony every day. But everyone is all better now and we’ve been back at it; doing what heroes do ya know?

I became friends with Shuri the legit princess of Wakanda, Spider-Man, and a talking tree named Groot! How cool is that?! I think it’s pretty cool… Although Peter’s been in Europe all summer, but Shuri and I keep texting him and it drives him crazy cause of the different time zone stuff. But he’s gonna be back for movie night so we can show Carol the new Star Wars movies!

Have a mentioned I’ve met my idol and hero Captain Marvel? No? Must have slipped my mind. Anyways, she’s actually taking a little more time on Earth but still fighting space bad guys and so is Monica. We actually got to meet her family in Louisiana so that was awesome! And by the way, she is _totally _crushing on Valkyrie but don’t tell anyone and I ship it.

Another thing, Ant Man has the. Cutest. Daughter. Ever. Cassie is an actually cinnamon roll and the sweetest being in the universe! I actually got to baby sit and it was great we ate so many Pop-Tarts but don’t tell Scott. Or Hope. Or Hank or Janet for that matter either. Speaking of the Ant Farm, turns out Scott’s got some sort of weird quantum genetic thing like Janet from being stuck in the quantum realm. Carol doesn’t have it cause space. Duh. Anyways, Janet’s been working on it with him. There’s also Ava and Luis who are super awesome too! I honestly want Luis to, like, explain my life or something at my funeral cause he’s a great storyteller! That was weird. Moving on.

Asguard is back in black baby! As in an ACDC reference. Nevermind. Anyways, Thor, Loki, Valkyrie, Jane Foster now also Thor, Bruce, Korg, Mink, and the rest of the remaining Asgardians have reestablished Asguard in Norway! It’s so cool! I really wanna check it out sometime. And I think Thor and Bruce are dating now. Don’t quote me on that. Whatever, I also ship it.

Hold on back up a second. So, remember when I was talking about how much I love Cassie? Well, Clint, Hawkeye? I feel like Clint’s personal so I’m just gonna call him Hawkeye still. Anyways, his kids are adorable too! Plus, Scott and Clint have been able to become buddies again because they’re not under house arrest or being Thanos snapped out of existence. But yeah, the only issue is that they’re both dads which isn’t the issue, but they make a bunch of dad jokes… so that’s how me, Wanda, Cassie, Peter, Lila, Cooper, and Nathaniel locked ourselves in the guest room and watched Shrek. Natasha was our babysitter and she’s the best assassin ever! It was great!

I feel like me, Shuri, Peter, and Groot have this sort of alliance, but Wanda is also part of it too. We’re, like, the teenage Avengers plus Wanda cause Wanda is considered a young adult, but whatever. She’s like all of our cool older sister. Plus, she might propose to Vision soon! Eee!

Also, I like to believe I’ve started a new fandom for the Guardian of the Galaxy because those guys are just so awesome, and I managed to be one of the first to get a fanfic out there about them! There was just one author ahead of me with the username Unbelievable_Gwen_Poole but meh. I’ll lend them this one victory. Mantis is really cool and so is Nebula, bro she freaking killed Thanos! Gamora is awesome and she’s kind of like a mom but don’t tell her I said that. They’ve come to Earth once or twice since, you know. Me, Carol, Shuri, Peter, and Scott showed Quill 90s music! It was epic but my voice was dead for a week after singing All Star on the top of my lungs. I think he misses Earth a lot and me and Peter’s super cool friend MJ found a Buzzfeed Unsolved episode on him. But they’ll be back for our Star Wars marathon so that’s cool!

Oh, I almost forgot! Tony Stark rebought Avengers tower! It’s gonna be great, because there’s nothing more housewarming than Star Wars! Plus, it’s like, super nostalgia of my childhood so.

S.H.E.I.L.D. is back up and running! Woo! I have a job… that I don’t get paid for… sigh. That’s fine though; I’m ready to openly fight bad guys again!

Another thing Sam Wilson is Captain America! Not in like, a weird way, but like, he’s got the shield and everything now! He and Bucky are teaming up and partners in crime! Well, not crime necessarily, actually the opposite. Don’t worry, Cap’s not dead… It’s… interesting.

I, I think… I don’t think anyone’s every gonna stop avenging and doing what’s right… but I think it’s the start of something new. Like, Sam being Cap, Jane being Thor, Captain Marvel coming to Earth, Black Panther opening Wakanda to the world, I think it’s a sign, you know? It doesn’t mean they’re necessarily retired, but I think the originals are just stepping out of the spotlight… and can you really blame them?”

“Kamala!” Aamir called, “You’re talking to yourself again and you’re going to be late to school! Free ride going once, twice…”

“Ok, ok! I’m coming!” Kamala called, shutting off the camera. She’d have to edit that part out later.

The school day seemed to fade by; her mind was somewhere else. Her parents knew she wouldn’t be back until later tonight. It was a miracle they were letting her do this. Even if she wasn’t _exactly_ helping give a tutoring session at the library.

Maybe it was the Iron Man arc reactor tee shirt she had on, but she walked a little more confidently through the halls on her way out the door after the final bell.

“Kamala!” One of her best friends Bruno called out.

“Hey!” They fist bumped, “What’s up?”

He sighed, “I think I failed that English quiz.”

She rolled her eyes, “I’m sure you did fine. You’re, like, the smartest person I know. Besides of course Princess Shuri of Wakanda and yes I can say that now cause I’ve met her.”

“I don’t know if I should say thanks or ouch.” He grinned, “Besides, I like to think I’m a man of science so what if I don’t know the symbolism of mirrors in Jekyll and Hyde?”

“I think you at least have to have fully gone through puberty to be considered a ‘man’.” She teased.

“Ok, I do know what to say now, ouch!”

They laughed as they walked out on the sunny parking lot. The weather was cool enough though to show hints of fall coming. It was actually, for the first time in a long time, really beautiful.

“Hey, so is it true you’re going to a… how do I put this?”

“Initiation?”

“Yeah, that works.”

She grinned, “Yes.”

“Lucky! Dude, going to see movies with me and Nakia is gonna be so lame now!” He groaned.

“Um, the first time I ever snuck out of my house was to see Deathy Hallows Part 2 with you guys! Going to the movies is always great.” She beamed, then gave him a hug. No particular reason; just felt like a good time to give one.

He sighed, “Alright, we are pretty awesome. Do… do you need a ride?”

Kamala turned her head the sound of a car honk. In the parking space under the shady oak tree kids normally spit their gum by, Wanda, Vision, and Sam stood by a sea green Volkswagen wearing baseball caps and sunglasses. Bucky was in the driver’s seat.

She turned back to him and smiled, “I think I got it covered. See you next week.”


	37. Heroes always come back

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Fury and Carol catch up after yet another alien invasion and discuss the future of the Avengers.

“Huh.” Carol muttered as the movie ended and the screen turned dark, “Maybe I didn’t miss as much as I thought I did. You were right guys. Guys…?”

Everyone around her was asleep and she smiled to herself. Thor snored fairly loud; Bruce’s head was rested on his shoulder and Loki isolated himself with a blanket. Valkyrie had managed to rotate herself upside down to where her legs dangled off the top of the couch and Korg cuddled Mink like a teddy bear.

Peter had curled himself up in Tony’s lap and Pepper had wrapped her arms around both of them.

Vision held Wanda, her head leaning against his chest. Kamala’s phone hung loosely in her hand. She had most likely been showing Shuri a meme before they both fell asleep. A pillow was thrown over T’Challa’s face, his soft breathing whistled from underneath it. Nakia had pressed a pillow against his shoulder and her head rested on top of it. Okoye cuddled herself in an oversized sweatshirt of Natasha’s that previously belonged to Clint.

Steve was in between Sam and Bucky, who had been clearly fighting over the blanket that they each gripped the ends of tightly.

Quill, Gamora, Nebula, Drax, Mantis, Groot, and Rocket held each other like a reunited family and Carol could faintly hear the music playing through Quill’s headphones.

Rhodey buried himself in blankets and pillows on the floor and Clint had managed to pass out in a bowl of popcorn, something that if Natasha were awake next to him, she would never let him her the end of. Strange’s cloak had wrapped him into a cozy hug as he hovered in the air and Wong had simply fallen asleep in an armchair with the DVD boxes in his lap.

Hope’s head drifted onto her shoulder. Her arm was around Scott who cuddled against her. Carol lightly pushed Hope's head back on top of Scott's. Goose purred, almost as if in agreement. She scratched the top of his head.

“Those chaotic messes are perfect for each other.” Carol remarked humorously to the flerkin.

Goose suddenly raised his ears in high alert and crawled up her arm to perch on her shoulder. She felt him vibrate as he tilted his head. He meowed in greeting.

“Well, it’s official.” A familiar voice commented from behind her, “You’re a crazy cat woman.”

Carol grinned, turning her upper body and leaning on her arm against the back of the couch, “First of all, Goose is a flerkin. And second of all, I’d need at least, like, twenty cats to officially be a crazy cat woman.”

He gave a small smile and nodded, “Good to see you again, Captain.”

“You too. Nice eyepatch by the way. I see you’re embracing the whole pirate thing.” She added humorously.

Fury crossed his arms, “You got a problem with pirates?”

Carol shrugged, “No, pirates are cool. You do you man.” She paused, “Ok, but just so we’re clear, you still like Guns and Roses, right? So we can still be friends.”

“Oh yeah. A person could never change that much.” Fury nodded.

“Alright, good.” A silence followed as Carol reached into her jacket pocket for her pager and held it up, “I got your page.”

He grinned, “Yeah, I know. You planning on staying?”

Carol shrugged, “Maybe…”

“How was the rest of the universe, anyways?”

“Well…” She laughed to herself, “Yeah, it’s uh, it’s a long story. A lot of planets out there and not enough people to defend them.”

“There must have been. You didn’t even stop to tell a brother hello.” Fury smirked.

“Yeah, you guys are lucky though. You have a whole team of heroes protecting this world.”

Fury gestured across the room, “And the team seems to keep getting bigger.”

“Yeah. Totally didn’t have anything to do with my Air Force nickname, did it?” Carol smirked at him.

He rolled his eyes, “Fine, you got me there, Danvers. It was just an idea.” He grinned, “I never believed it would turn into this.”

“Turned out for the better, with the whole Thanos thing.”

“Alright, we’re already referring to it as the ‘Thanos thing’.”

“Oh, you know what I mean.”

“Yeah.” Fury continued a little more seriously, “Have you ever seen anything else like him though?”

The question caught Carol slightly off guard, “Well, yeah. Insane, crazy, and abusive sure, but…”

“But not with that much power.” He finished.

Carol sighed, “He was a madman. Anyone who would try to bring together the six strongest forces in our universe is.”

“I’m just saying, if something like this, or worse, happens again, then we’re gonna need you.”

Carol nodded slowly, “I know. That’s why we have the pagers.”

“Carol, Avengers don’t last forever.” Fury began as Carol leaned back and groaned.

“No, we can’t have this talk. Not now.”

“Tony’s having a daughter.” Fury pointed out.

“Oh.” Carol glanced at Tony and Pepper, “That’s cool…”

“He’s going to be a dad, and…” Fury hesitated, “Quite frankly, I wouldn’t blame him if he decided to step down.”

“Yeah, ok, I get it.” She sighed, “You’re starting a new generation of Avengers, or something.”

“I’m not starting it. These things happen. People grow up and new ones just begin to. We already have a fifteen-year-old Avenger. And, if we get another cosmic threat like this,” He paused, “We’re going to need Carol ‘Avenger’ Danvers kicking some alien ass.”

She laughed at this, “Yeah, yeah. You have a valid point… Let’s just say we’ll see. I’ll be here for now and you can bet I’ll be back when something like this goes down again.”

He smiled, “Ok. That’s fair. Besides, that’s what the kid is for.” Fury gestured to Kamala.

Carol grinned, “Yeah well, she’s a good kid.”

Fury nodded. Goose purred to fill the silence.

“How many of these guys did you have to knock out to talk to me?”

Fury pretended to look hurt, “That actually offends me. You’re accusing me, you think I? …Yeah, well, there was Barton, Romanoff, Panther-,”

“T’Challa?”

“Shut up I’m doing last names. Van Dyne, Wilson… just a few it’s fine.”

She shrugged, “If you say so… night Fury.”

Carol stole another blanket of Rhodey’s ‘igloo’, turned on her side and went to sleep.

* * *

_ A few days later _

Stan smiled to himself. It had been a while since the old crew went out for shawarma. However, they’d probably be back again shortly.

As he cleaned up the table… he lifted the hammer to wipe the surface and set it back down, unnoticed.

They would be back for it. Heroes always come back.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And that's it folks... for now... (the next work 'Adventures in Symbiote-sitting' is already in progress and will be uploaded soon)


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